Finally, the long-awaited Switzerland blog! Sorry for the lapse… I’ve been ~living in the moment~ out here, and I’m currently eating a nectarine in a villa in Italy, so I really make no apologies. Anyways.
I don’t think I’ve ever found the peace in my soul as fully as I did while visiting Switzerland. After a train ride that included a hectic train connection in Zurich – it is a serious design flaw to make a multi-level train station – I finally arrived in Bern, which was to be my home base for the next week. Meeting me at the train station was Kate, a woman who I had never met, but who was friends with Brittney and was gracious enough to let me stay with them still even though Brittney was no longer traveling with me. Let me tell you, I have never in my life met a kinder soul. She opened her home up to me, and she and her two children were nothing but welcoming and hospitable my entire stay, to me, a complete stranger. By the end of the week, Switzerland felt like home.
The first full day I was in Switzerland, Kate and her children, Norah (12) and Auttum (10) (sorry Kate I’m sure I spelled his name wrong) took me out to really see the Alps, at a place called Grindelwald, which is a little town situated nice and cozy in the heart of the mountains. The four of us first went to a glacier canyon – literally, a canyon created by a glacier that once resided there – it has since melted and is continuing to melt, providing the water for the Aare River that flows through Bern.
I don’t even know how to describe this place. I think I’ll find a lot of that when trying to talk about Switzerland, which just proves how mediocre of a writer I am. There was something about the glacier canyon that made you feel like you were at the beginning of time, at the beginning of the Earth’s story. A literal glacier in the ice age was right there, where I was standing. It was also freezing cold in the canyon and I was a fool for not bringing a jacket of some sort.
But we DID go out and stand – and lie, and jump – on this giant spider web structure that spans the expanse of the canyon. I really wish I could have gotten some pictures out there, but my phone and tiny camera would have slipped through all those holes in an instant. I also could have lied out there and made shadows on the rushing currents below for infinity.
After the glacier canyon (in which we spend a good chunk of time), Kate took the kids home, and I stayed out in Grindelwald by myself. I was a little scared, because this meant figuring out the trains home by myself, but honestly I’m so glad I did, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences. I spent a couple hours hiking around (hiking around the Alps?? by myself??) and exploring the little town.
From taking a cable car up the mountains, to discovering a little meadow full of wild flowers, to stumbling across a river running through the mountains, my entire time up in the Alps was nothing short of magical and peaceful. I think I really needed that peace. It felt like a light liquid silver entered my veins through my heart and pumped through the rest of my body, healing anything that might need healing.
I’m cheesy as hell, you don’t need to tell me that. It’s just the best sort of description I can find for this place. If you ever get a chance to visit the Alps, don’t just go, RUN to get there.
Monday came along, and as Kate is an adult with an actual adult job (she teaches English at the local school), I had the day to myself to explore. A trip to Bern is not a trip to Bern without a visit to the Aare River, so off I went in my bathing suit. You know those pictures you see of unbelievable blue/turquoise water, and you think that it cannot possibly be real? Yeah, that’s how the Aare is. Remember I mentioned that the Aare is formed form the melting glacier, which is what gives it that amazing turquoise color.
The place I went to is actually the Marzili, a pool that sits next to the river, with a lush grassy area filled with sunbathers separating the two. All along the Aare are little steps and railings to get into the river, so I decided to try this turquoise water for myself. The minute I stepped in and felt an inch or two of the current against my feet, I clung to the railing. And made the decision I would only just stand there and continue to cling to the railing. This current was not something to be played with y’all. And then a lady came down next to me, probably in her fifties and obviously a local, and with a nod to me and without so much as touching the rail, she dove right in without a seconds moment. I stood there in shock for a second as I watched the current take her away, and I figured if this lady could jump in so smoothly, I surely could take another step in. So, one, two more steps in I went, and the icy water was hitting me right at the stomach. The cold pierced through me and made me forget about the ninety-degree heatwave we were having. The swift current was tugging at my midsection, but I still felt pretty good and like I could take another step in – still, of course, holding on to the rail. However, my grip on the rail had loosened as I gained confidence, forgetting that I am indeed a relatively small human with not much to work with against the current. And the fact that the next step was covered in some sort of slippery… slime? I suppose? And with that fateful step and slip, the current won it’s battle, and my footing was lost and my heart stopped beating for a minute. To be honest, the current only took me a few feet before I grabbed onto the concrete step and hauled myself, dripping, shivering, and ungracefully, out of the Aare.
Besides a scraped butt and bruised ego, I’m perfectly fine.
But the other two times I dared to get in I clung to the rail for dear life and just sort of dipped my body in.
That evening, after Kate’s classes got out for the day, we met up in the Old Town and she took me around to where some of her favorite shops were, and when we climbed up to the top of the local cathedral, she pointed out her favorite areas in town. Here are a few Bern-tourist pictures I took for you to enjoy.
The next day, Tuesday, was one of the most special that I spent in Bern. Like I mentioned, Kate teaches English to the local school, and she asked me if I would be interested in coming in to her class, which of COURSE I was. Then as we were talking, it turned out that the book they were analyzing at the time just so happened to be Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. For those of you who don’t know, about two years ago I was in a theatre production created entirely around that book, and I absolutely love it and am quite familiar with it. It was so cool to go into the classroom, and her kids, who were my age, were very welcoming and kind. When they were doing an exercise of analyzing chunks of the book with partners and having their conversations in English, she had me go around the classroom and talk with them about it and ask them questions. Super neat. And then, at the end of the class, she actually had me show the students a chunk of the production I was in (it’s on Youtube, if anyone wants to see some awesome weird theatre, click here). It was vulnerable to show my art but also amazing that the production I was in in Fort Wayne, Indiana, got to be shown in a classroom in Switzerland.
Kate and I finished off the day together by going to the Bern contemporary art museum, where they were having a special display titled Ekstase (Ecstasy) that we both wanted to see, and it was so cool. It was based off of ecstasy derived from a number of different ways humans derive pleasure. There was one series of eight videos where I guy just tried a shit ton of different drugs and recorded his reactions to each one to try to unlock a heightened mental state, and there was another video I fell in love with that basically felt like a comforting psychedelic trip. For more info on the exhibit (I highly recommend reading about it), click here.
The following day I decided to brave a trip by myself to Geneva. Little did I know that I would not be alone. On the train on the way there, I met the most lovely Indian family who asked me to come hang out and explore Geneva with them, so of course I did. We went to the fountain in Geneva that is the world’s tallest fountain and took a ton of pictures together, and then we went wandering around the shopping area (Geneva is known for it’s shopping). They really were the most lovely family, and when I visit India, I have a place to stay!!
After I did much window-shopping with them, I decided to part ways, as I had worn my bathing suit in preparation for the beach in Geneva, and they wanted to continue on to see the UN office and a couple other notable landmarks. It was truly the most iconic adventure around Geneva with them, and I’m so happy I got to meet them.
I have no terribly crazy stories to report about Geneva, surprisingly, but I did enjoy my time in that lovely and wealthy city. I got ice cream by the beach, got lost in the Old Town and stumbled upon a sweet library, and finally stopped by a little precious rocks store on my way back to the train station.
And alas, that brings me to my final day in Switzerland. Mostly filled with folding my laundry and re-packing my suitcase, because it was lookin’ rough after three weeks abroad. Once evening came, I met again with the Aare River. This time it was with Kate, and though she didn’t really know of my run-in with the river earlier in the week, she knew I was a strong swimmer and wanted to take me actually swimming in it before I left. So I met my fears face to face.
It was pretty amazing guys.
I didn’t take my phone or camera so I don’t have any pictures, but imagine that perfect turquoise river surrounded by green trees and floating down the center of it just as golden hour hits. Divine. She took this air-bag that she has with us and we put our stuff in that so we could just float down the river and get out at any point (she also took me to an area where the current was not nearly as strong as where I went earlier in the week – though I would like to point out that I still braved many trees and rocks in the water). Between the two of us we had so much stuff that we didn’t want to overfill the air bag so it didn’t float, so we left a few of our belongings in a bush at the area that we got in at. Including our shoes. Not our wisest moment, as we then had to walk back to that area to retrieve them. We have decided that the bottom of my feet will be able to tell a map of everywhere I’ve been over here, and I’ll be able to know exactly which scrapes and bumps are from Switzerland.
We finished the evening with dinner along the bank of the river and a drink at this cafe tucked away in the woods and a longer-than-expected-but-with-beautiful-views hike to a nearest bus stop (we both like trying new routes); the two of us easily talk for hours on end about every range of subjects available to us, and it was the perfect way to end my time in Switzerland. The following morning I left bright and early no later than 6:30am to catch my train to Italy, and my heart was sad to leave. I cannot wait to visit Kate and the Alps and Bern again in the future.
Thus concludes the Switzerland chapter of my story! Switzerland was a peaceful home, but now here I sit in Italy ready to eat lots of pasta and drink lots of wine (and you should see my tan lines already), because, as I say, onward and upward!
Love Always, Val
Val's Voyage 