A Day in the Alps

Never in a million years did I think I would spend an entire day hiking the Swiss Alps. Our first morning in Switzerland, I took the coldest shower of my life in a slightly scary communal bathroom. But the rest of the day made up for it. We took a train to Lauterbrunnen, and then took a gondola ride from the train station. We hiked to Mürren from the gondola, walking through the most amazing scenery complete with darling Swiss cottages, rolling green hills, hidden waterfalls, and tinkling cow bells. We stopped for lunch in Mürren at the cutest restaurant with the most amazing view of the alps. Probably one of my favorite meals of the entire trip based on the fact that it felt like I could literally reach out and touch the mountains. A group of us took a gondola ride up to the second highest summit called Birg. There was snow at the top, and we were completely encased by clouds. But the ride up and back was stunning – the green valleys, Swiss rooftops, towering mountains… Pictures simply can’t do it justice. I tried my first Swiss chocolate after all that hiking – it lived up to its name.

Bus drivers have all kinds of weird rules in Europe, so we couldn’t leave for Bern until midnight so our bus driver could have a 24-hour break. That meant we had around 6 hours to kill. But it also meant we were able to thoroughly explore the little town of Interlaken and also that we successfully drove the hostel owners mad. We made it to Bern around 1 am. All 20 of us girls were in one giant room at this hostel…

Our second day in Switzerland was full of business visits and bus drives. But the bus drives were absolutely beautiful. I’ll never forget driving past Geneva Lake with all of us pressed against the bus windows snapping pictures. We visited Honeywell and Cailler Chocolate Factory. The chocolate factory was the best – the end of the tour consisted of a room with around 20 different chocolate samples. So delicious, but we all left feeling pretty sick. We spent that night in Lausanne and explored the city. My favorite part was going down to the lake at night. The next day we went to the International Olympic Committee for one of my favorite business visits of the trip - talk about an amazing career. We rushed to make it to our next visit at Nestle before bidding Switzerland farewell to head to Florence.

Switzerland was a welcome break after our hectic time in bustling Paris and London. A beautiful country with beautiful memories.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

– Saint Augustine

Merci Paris

Our arrival in Paris gave the locals a pretty good show. Unless you’ve personally tried navigating the crowded Paris streets and subways with 33 people who are each lugging a backpack and large suitcase and have absolutely no idea where they’re going, you just can’t quite completely appreciate the experience. Lugging that suitcase up the sixth flight of stairs after that suitcase had been shut in the subway doors, I was about ready to empty the thing then and there. Our best performance was trying to find the hotel. Many cafes in Paris are designed so that everyone sits directly facing the street. Therefore, we had quite the captive audience as all 33 of us trudged single file down the street towards our hotel. As it turns out, the hotel was back in the direction we had just come from. And consequently, all 33 of us proceeded to turn around and file past the exact same audience a few minutes later. But we did make it, the hotel was much nicer than our London hostel, and the getting there is just all part of the experience…

And what an experience Paris was. Our first evening there was absolutely magical and full of everything you imagine Paris to be – crepes from a street vendor, the Eiffel Tower, a moonlight boat ride, late night hot chocolate at a pavement café... I fulfilled a childhood dream in taking my picture in front of the Eiffel Tower. (And by picture, I mean stopping every few steps to take a new one.) Words can’t describe how beautiful the Eiffel Tower is when lit up at night, especially during the light show when it twinkles. And during the boat ride around Paris with the city all lit up, I had to pinch myself. We found a cafe by the Eiffel Tower for hot chocolate. Just a side note - the metro closes at 1 am, and if you miss it, getting home is quite an ordeal. We got a little carried away with our first Parisian experience and learned that the hard way…

We had a business visit at Disneyland Paris our second day. The best part – we got free entrance into the park! After spending some time there, a group of us headed back to explore Paris. Thanks to Megan and her excellent navigation and French-speaking skills, we did quite well getting around. Notre Dame is stunning, especially the stained glass windows. The Louvre is breathtaking – you could literally spend days in there. We didn’t have that long, but I can say I’ve seen the Mona Lisa! We had dinner at a cute little café where I had the best croque monsieur. We ended the day at Lock Bridge where we all pitched in to buy a lock and wrote our initials on it. Becky stood on the bridge to lock it to the top of a lamp post (which she managed to do right before the police came to tell her to get down), and we tossed the key into the river. Such a lovely day… Paris is a beautiful city, and the architecture never ceased to impress me.

The next day began with a visit to the Palace of Versailles. The palace and gardens are unbelievable and sort of rekindle those girlhood dreams of becoming a princess… After an audio tour of the palace and a walk around the gardens, Saudalia and I waited in a super long line to climb the Eiffel Tower. But it was well worth it. 674 stairs later, we were rewarded with breathtaking views of Paris and the satisfaction of saying we had climbed the tower. Our group activity that night was to the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed to the top just in time for sunset and snapped more than a couple of photos. It’s amazing to see the different tree-lined avenues that all culminate at the Arc.

Paris was a whole lot of walking, and we decided to add a bit more before we left the city. We went to church in the morning before the bus picked us up to head to Switzerland. We thought our metro passes had expired, so we went by foot. We walked and walked and walked. Over an hour later, we arrived very late and rather tired. On the way back, we decided to try our metro passes just in case… Lesson learned - try that first. But hey, we got to see just that much more of the city.

Whenever I pictured myself going to Europe, it was always to Paris. The city was one of my favorites and is definitely on my list to return to someday. Merci Paris, for not letting me down. 

“A bad day in Paris is still better than a good day anywhere else.” - Anonymous

Telephone Booths, Big Ben, and Double-Decker Buses

Climbing the stairs at Westminster station, I wasn’t prepared for the view that greeted me. As I ascended the last few steps, I looked up, and cliché as it sounds, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Big Ben was literally right in front of me. That welcome to London remains one of my favorite memories of the trip.

London was my very first taste of Europe. Ten countries in 30 days means not much time allowed for each stop; thus, we barely scraped the surface of the beautiful city. However, we did get a wonderful sampling of all it has to offer. We traveled all night and arrived in London around 11 am, and we hit the ground running. London provided our first experience with the joys of tackling public transportation armed with a suitcase packed for a month, and we spent a whopping 3 hours getting from the airport to our hostel. (The hostel is a whole different story that I won’t get into here. I’ll leave it at small, cramped, and slightly scary - you can use your imagination.) We literally dropped off our bags and then set off to explore London. Of course, our first pictures were by the classic red telephone booths. Touristy? Yes. Necessary? Also yes. It was amazing to see all the truly breathtaking London landmarks I had only dreamed about before - Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, double-decker buses... We even dropped by a bakery claiming to have the “best Cornish pastries.” I’m still not entirely sure what a Cornish pastry is, but it was pretty good. That first night we all met up to see “Wicked.” It was wonderful, but the adrenaline that had kept me going all day started to wear off around twenty minutes in...

Our second day in London, a group of us went running through Hyde Park – absolutely beautiful in the early morning. Part of the study abroad included business visits throughout Europe, and we had our first visit to Citigroup that morning. The rest of the day was ours to experience London. A ride on the London Eye was simply amazing and well worth the winding line. And I can now say I’ve had a dance party with a panoramic view of London… Other stops for the day included the famous department store Harrods, St. Paul’s Cathedral, a delicious cafe, and an entertaining but unsuccessful attempt to find the Beatle’s Abbey Road. Snapping pictures in front of the lit up Tower Bridge was the perfect end to a packed day.

The next morning we had to bid London goodbye to head to Paris, but a small group of us squeezed in one last site with a quick trip to the Tower of London. We took advantage of every last minute we had in the city, cutting it rather close as we sprinted back to the hostel for the appointed departure time...

All in all, not a bad way to start the trip. London was a fine welcome to Europe.

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous

To Begin...

10 countries in 30 days with 33 of the best. That sums up my study abroad in a nutshell. This is my first blog, and to be perfectly honest, it's a requirement for one of my classes. But I've decided to take full advantage of this blogging opportunity and use it for semi-selfish reasons in order to reminiscence about a once in a lifetime experience. This past summer, I spent all of July traveling around Europe with a group of 33 other students on an international business study abroad. Glimpsing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, listening to cow bells tinkling in the Swiss Alps, riding a gondola through the canals of Venice, watching the city of Florence light up at night, wandering the streets of Salzburg, running through London's Hyde Park, tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain… I could go on and on. So I guess it’s a good thing I’m starting this blog. London is up first…so get excited!

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy