Jake's Travel Blog: Switzerland Week 2

Switzerland was a hard place to leave. Its natural beauty and remarkable snowboarding left me in awe. After leaving Bern I headed to the "Swiss Alps Retreat" for a week. It was a cool chalet/hostel with many travelers living there on a more permanent basis and working in the area. The snowboarding resort, Villars-Gryon, was only a 15 minute walk or 3 minute ride on the train from the chalet. My timing couldn’t have been better because they got huge dumps of snow all week which made for fresh powder every day. The guys living there said it’s the best conditions they’ve had all season. These were literally conditions that I dream of. I was gliding on new powder every run and it was not busy at all because it was during the week. The resort had an upper section called “Glacier 3000” which is closed whenever conditions are potentially unsafe – cloudy, windy, avalanche danger, etc. – so it wasn’t until my final day of snowboarding that I got to go there. In terms of conditions, I found it very similar to other runs, but the view was outstanding! That extra 1000 meters made a huge difference in terms of the surrounding view of the Alps – as you’ll see in the pictures. I snowboarded for 4 days straight at Villar Gryon – making for a total of 7 days of snowboarding in the Alps on my Euro trip. My last two days at the chalet were spent exploring the Village and planning the rest of my trip. I was admittedly very sad to leave knowing I may never return to the Alps, but the memories I have of this outstanding experience will not be leaving anytime soon.

On Sunday I left the Swiss Alps Retreat at 8:30am and arrived in Geneva at 11:00am. The only train available to eurail pass holders from there to Nice (my next destination) left at 2:00pm, so this gave me a couple hours to put my bags in a locker and explore Geneva. It was a nice sunny day which made the city even more beautiful, especially looking across the lake with the Alps in the background. Back at the train station, I had about 12 Swiss Francs to get rid of, and I found a bakery where I carefully purchased a sandwich and various other goodies to perfectly spend my remaining Francs. After this 3-4 minute process, I realized my train left in only 2 minutes and made a dash for it. But for some reason I didn’t have that “extra energy” that I had when I was running to catch my train from Munich to Switzerland (yes some things never change, but I did catch that train). So I reached the tracks just in time to watch my train to Nice take off. I was actually pretty happy about this because I really wasn’t ready to leave Geneva; especially since the weather on Monday was supposed to be crummy, making it the better day to spend on a train for 8 hours.

After getting the departure times for the next day’s trains to Nice, I checked in at a nearby hostel and sent a message to Ben, a friend from high school currently living in Geneva, to let him know I was in there for the night. Then I went to have a look at the European Headquarters of the United Nations and took a tour of the Red Cross museum. Back at the hostel, I met a group of 30 or 40 American students who are doing a study abroad program that’s a wee bit more intense than what I did in Copenhagen. They’re in Switzerland for a two week orientation, then going for 5 weeks in India, then 5 weeks in China, followed by 5 weeks in South Africa. Living in both hostels and local families’ homes, a professor gives them lectures along the way (their classroom in Switzerland was a church) as well as various assignments related to the experience of their trip. It sounded like quite the experience and I really enjoyed talking to them about it.

Later in the night I got a call from Ben and we met up for some drinks with his girlfriend and some of his coworkers from the hotel he works at. He said only 10% of the hotel’s staff are Swiss, making for an interesting mix of international people he works with. Ben’s clearly having a great time, and he’s got an 18-month work permit for Switzerland which I didn’t even know we could get. Definitely sparked my interest as a fantastic way to see the world without putting yourself into debt. Ben’s girlfriend from Canada is working in Zurich as a nanny (or some similar European term) for a Swiss family. This also sounds like a pretty sweet deal and an interesting experience, however only an option for girls. So maybe this is something my little sis Kim can consider doing one day.

All in all, Geneva was an excellent experience and I truly enjoyed learning more about other ways that people are seeing the world at a young age. It was great catching up with an old high school friend and getting a glimpse of his life working abroad, and Geneva was a beautiful city to check out on a sunny day. Yes, I am happy that I missed my train yesterday. I hope you enjoy the pictures! Jake.

First day of snowboarding - with people from the hostel.

Looks like a Canada flag, doesn't it? I found out after taking the picture that it was in fact a Swiss flag.

The way out in a skiing emergency. Minimum cost, $1500. Better hope you got travel insurance!

Swiss Cottages in the mountains.

Taking the Gondola up to "Glacier 3000"

Fresh powder on the glacier.

I think that's my track in the powder.

At first I felt a sense of urgency for the bus to come, then I sat back and enjoyed the view (pictured above & below) and I realized I was in no rush whatsoever.