Unvergessliches Wochenende!

Words and pictures just do not give this past trip any justice. Everything from the people, food, views, weather, and even transportation, were absolutely fantastic. We were all so skeptical about getting a “blind booking” to one of the most expensive cities in Europe, but it definitely turned out to be an unforgettable weekend! After an early morning, we arrived in Zurich, Switzerland on Saturday, and other than the flight and hostel booking, we were pretty much going to wing the entire trip, which was a complete blessing in disguise! After a quick stop to McDonald’s (originally just to gawk at the outrageous prices – CHF 13 for a Big Mac!), we headed off to the trams to see where we could go. As the six of us stood rather lost-looking at the station, a man approaches us and asks us where we are going. His name was Roger and, after we told him our plans, pretty much said: forget the museums and botanical gardens, I will show you Zurich. And so we jumped on the tram and followed him! He gave us a VIP tour of Zurich, complete with history, statistics, and lots of free souvenirs! He took us to the top floor of the tallest building in Zurich and bought us teas/cakes. The view from here was beautiful! It overlooked the entire city! He even helped us make restaurant reservations and showed us which trams to take to get to our hostel. We were all completely blown away by this stranger’s generosity. He literally spent four hours of his day and about CHF 200 on six random Americans! It’s amazing how much of an effect a first impression can have. From this point on, I will always have positive memories of Switzerland simply because one man went out of his way to show a few tourists his city. We checked into the hostel early that evening. From what I’ve heard, the hostel we stayed in was pretty nice, and I thought it was too. Unfortunately, now I have high expectations for every hostel I stay in from here on out haha. We decided to go on a little hike up the “mountain” behind the hostel before it got dark. Turns out, we were hiking up the backside of the same ridge we were going to climb the next day. We didn’t really know where we going, but the snow was deep and fresh and the views were very nice. We had a lot of fun playing around in the snow, taking pictures, SHOVING people into the snow (Zach, cough cough haha!), and just walking around. That night we had a delicious dinner at one of the restaurants Roger recommended. It may have cost a little, but it was worth every penny. The prices in general were high in Zurich, but I felt like it was always money well spent. I never felt like I was being ripped off for the amount I was paying.

The next morning, we woke up early and caught a tram to the top of Uetilberg, a small “mountain” overlooking Zurich. We rented sleds when we got to the top and had a BLAST sledding down a pretty decent course back to the bottom, where we caught the tram and did it again! After our toes were thoroughly frozen, our hips cracked, our knees bruised, and our butts aching, we stopped and headed to the very top of the mountain for an aerial view. Even though we will all be feeling the effects of sledding for a few days, it was totally worth it! The restaurant Roger took us to the previous day showed us the urbanized view of Zurich, but from Uetilberg, we got to see the natural side of Switzerland, from Lake Zurich to the Alps. It was such a beautiful day so we could see EVERYTHING. Words cannot describe it and the pictures really don’t capture it. We came back down the mountain and went on a boat tour on Lake Zurich. It was so nice to just sit and sip hot chocolate as we sailed past beautiful scenery.  Just looking out at the mountains reminded me again of how blessed I feel to be able to go on this trip. Life is good : ) We went back to the hostel early and had a fondue dinner…would I order it again? Probably not, but I didn’t think it was bad and I felt fine afterwards. We were going to call it a night, but decided, hey, when in one of the swankiest places in Europe, why not go to a casino haha?! We were only there for a short time, but it was really fun!

Monday was a window shopping, wind-down day. We mostly walked around, had lunch, and then headed back to the airport. The whole trip was amazing and I would go back to Switzerland in a heartbeat. Can’t wait until our next adventure!