Switzer{Wonder}land

Last weekend I decided to take a very long and highly anticipated trip to Switzerland to see one of my friends from home, Shelby Sitorious. This trip was my other trip, well strike that, only trip that I had planned to do partially alone. I left Thursday night to take an overnight 6hr bus ride to Madrid, got into the bus station at about 5am and got to the airport, through security and to my gate rather smoothly. Even had a bit of luck..found a bench to sleep on sans arms rests so I got a few hours sleep in, plane was on time, and off to Switzerland I went!! I landed and had written out directions on how to get to the train station, which one to take and so on, and things were going good. That is, until I had to call Shelby. My phone is a "Spanish" phone (if you can call it that ... I prefer POS) and could not get ahold of her for the life of me. There are country codes over here that you have to dial, and I tried everyone in the book. Once I got to Laussane, my first stop and where Shelby lives, I was asking anyone within a 2km radius of the train station what number to dial, and I was told several (ALL LIES!) I passed an Internet cafe and decided that was the only way I could ever reach her. Thankfully after money conversions were taken care of, we were able to touch base and had no problems thereafter. I finally found her and we were going to look up where my hostel was when we looked up and could see it! By far the most beautiful hostel I have had..

After getting settled, we walked to the Pepperdine house (where she goes to school) and I met a bunch of her friends and we went to a park to drink a bottle of wine. Just look at where we got to hang out.

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There was just a beautiful haze over the mountains, it was a perfect temperature, and I could not have been more happy to be in Switzerland (or Sweden as I kept referring to it..NO idea why). We went out to a club called Le Darling and had a fabulous night. Was slightly stalked a little bit by a man named Rodriguez who wore a shark tooth, but was with some guys and a lot of people and it was just kind of a joke so no harm done. Decided to turn in so we could get up to take on the Alps!

Shelby and I holding our really cool $100 Franks...

Me and Shelb outside Laussane train station


The next morning we went to Zermatt with every intention to hike in the Alps. Although I had initially wanted to ski (shocking .. I know) the snow was just not in good condition at all so Shelby her friend and I decided to wear capris, sweatshirts, and tennis shoes and do some hiking trails. After a 2.5 hr train ride alongside of Lake Geneva and through the mountains we made it to our first stop. (as you all know I can NEVER get enough of the mountains pictures...)

From here we had about another hour and the scenery just got more and more beautiful. We finally arrived to Zermatt and I am going to let the pictures below do the talking for me. It was everything you picture a Swiss town to be and more. Lovely scenery, buildings, people, etc.

This is what we saw getting off the train!

This is how all the taxis looked. Only 3 tried to hit me.. I am getting better about not walking in the middle of European roads...work in progress

The famous Matterhorn..tallest peak in Switz

Entrance to a hotel...so cool!

Walking through the city...I am sure looking for chocolate!

My favorite picture of the city (well, while in the city still...read on!)

So like I said before, we had every intention to hike. After putzing around the city for a while we asked around and tried to figure out how to find the hiking trails. We were told to take a cable car up to a side of the mountain ... the lady failed to leave out the fact it was underground BUT we found it eventually. We had to eventually, it was only a town of 3,700 (but they get about 2million tourists a year!) We paid 15 franks (I am just giving you side notes to let you know how incredibly expensive it is there... a frank is about equal to a dollar) and we get out to see a long dark tunnel...and we followed people dressed only to ski. Well, things were not looking up. We got to the end of the tunnel to discover a ski run..and that's it. We asked where the hiking trails were and someone said "You're on it." Okay then.... a lady kindly pointed out to us that there was a restaurant nearby, figuring that is what we wanted since we were not dressed for anything else. We went up to the restaurant (only cuz the girls wanted to, I was all for stealing these old school sleds we saw) but had some good chocolate so it was worth it. We were literally surrounded by mountains and it was just the perfect spot. We asked the manager about hiking trails and he proceeded to show us just where they were... This is what he showed us.

Alrighty then. That is when I lost the interest of my friends and I knew hiking was the furthest thing from their minds. Especially when the manager solidified their decision by saying we were in no way dressed to hike and to rethink taking cable car back down. Well, not one to turn down a challenge/adventure, I was more adamant than ever to take on the Alps, skis or not. Shelby insisted I take her phone down with me and we had a meeting spot for 90 minutes later.

The hiking trails were part mud, part dirt, part snow, but all completely worth it! I will let the pictures describe my adventure down... Enjoy

Here goes nothing...heading to the unknown!

So everybody does these pics and I felt the need...incase it was my last chance to

Literally looked like I was dropping off the side of the earth...

First leg of the journey=complete. No snow..so far so good. That is until I came to the end of the path and literally ended up on a ski run. No biggy, just sloshing along in my tennis shoes sinking into my knees while I got weird looks from people on skis. Good thing I loved every moment of it (And good thing I do not embarrass easily! I just smiled and waved at people) Luckily my path I needed was right around the corner.

Hello Matterhorn..again

This was what the next leg of the hike looked like.

The path took me right through a cute little swiss town! Notice mtns, flag..nice picture capture I like to think! Things were going great and temperature outside was perfect. Also, wasn't even that wet (yet!)

Came to a fork in the road and saw this sign. I asked a lady what way she had come from. One road pointed slightly uphill and the other downwards; she told me she came from the downwards part, so naturally I wanted the challenge and went up!

I was raging to my iPod "high" on life (get it?) and traversing across the mountain for about 45 minutes. Here is looking down on city of Zermatt from above. Meanwhile, I had not gone downwards for some time now, so I was just slightly hesitating on my decision to take the high route. I could turn around and back track, NAHH I would wait another 10min and see where I would end up. I went through this motion about 3X, I would stop and think, then just keep walking. I decided after another 30min of this to turn around while it was still light out and I ran into (then strangers..now friends) Ziggy and Edith, professional Zermatt hikers. Said a little prayer to God for that one, and hiked down the rest of the mountain with these two. They were middle aged hikers and very knowledgable on Swizterland, Zermatt, and everything. It was so great talking to some locals (not to mention I knew I would get to the bottom safely..I was on the right track for the record!) and once we were to the bottom got a "sip." It was a little rocky on the way down but we managed. This is the end of the hiking trail..

Yup another ski trail! This is where I got wet but did not mind at all. I am so glad I did that hike for all of the above reasons! (Edith in front and then random skiers)

After that 2.5 hr hike I was hungry, so had to have some traditional Swiss food ..Rosti. It was basically like a delicious hashbrown dish with ham ... but SOOO good! Door County girls..they serve this at a local restaurant. We MUST TRY (Kays..they have cheese ones too!)

After a fabulous day in Zermatt we took bus ride home with Pepperdine students and had a blast!


The next day I went with some of Shelby's friends on a walk around Lake Geneva for a few hours. It was absolutely beautiful!! It was breathtaking to just walk on the lake, see the mountains, watch a rigada, aka the perfect Sunday afternoon. After that we just kind of relaxed for the afternoon and toured Lausanne at night.

It was great seeing Shelby and I had so much fun meeting her friends and Sunday night is where we parted ways and I was on my own to tour Geneva the following day. I woke up and took the train back into Geneva where was my first (of many) times I defied the law. The train conductor came up to me as I had to pay 30 franks for getting to Geneva, he asked my destination, I mistakenly said airport where he left for 30sec and I realized too late I was at my stop. Needless to say I had to get off, and I could not pay, so I just kept walking and about 30sec after getting off the train I literally ran into a cop. Bad sign? I thought so. Walked about 50 meters and literally (accidentily) walked into the police station. I needed to get outa there! Walked around for a bit (completely lost trying to find tourist office) and realized I had gone completely wrong way and had to go back through train station. No problem..got through it and on other side there were policemen on horses. You could say I was a bit paranoid (which I had no reason to be, it is not like I snuck off the train. Okay well I did BUT I TRIED TO PAY!) Found tourist office and made a plan for myself for the day. Would do "Old Town" Geneva on one part of the lake for the morning and head the other way later.

Geneva from one side

Clock made of 6500 flowers...and has the largest second hand in the world

Another shot..do not mind the tourist map

Geyser shooting water 7500M into the air!

The Promenade (very similar to one in NY)

The Reformation Wall. I was just walking down the promenade enjoying the view.. did not realize this wall was here!

Me in downtown

More

The lake :)

After enjoying the morning in Old Town I ventured to the Red Cross Museum since Henry Dunot, French man, had started the Red Cross. It was SO interesting. Learned all about it back from WW1 and to its uses today. I will not bore you will all the details, but will show you the few pics I did take.

The entrance to the Museum

Book written by Henry Dunot

Amputation kit in WW1!!! Yikes

Next up walked to United Nations... and had a slightly stupid American moment. I saw the gorgeous building and wanted to see what it looked like inside..who wouldn't? So I walk in..minding my own business. Turns out.. you aren't supposed to do that! I was getting yelled at in a few different languages..none of which were english. I turned around to see people in business suites with badges going through security...the whole nine yards. WOOPS definitely was not supposed to go through that gate. You live..you learn.

UN

Random oversixed 3-legged chair. Have NO clue what that represents

After that I was calling it a day. Time to get back on the bus (both ways I did not pay for..again defying the law..I tried but there was no place to put the money!) Got on the train and got into airport. Went through security, passport check, and through the line to get onto my plane, ALL OF WHICH MY PASSPORT/TICKET WERE NEVER CHECKED. I was getting away scotch free -- and I did nothing wrong! Sat towards front of plane since I knew I only had a 30min layover in Barcelona, plane took off on time..and things were going great. And as you all know my story never quite ends on a good note... this is where everything went downhill.

Got off the plane and ran to check the computer for when my flight was out (praying that like all my other luck, the plane would be delayed.) Did not see it on the computer, so ran to nearest INFO desk where I had to ask what terminal we were in. 1. My flight was in T2. Clock check-- T-25 min until take off, T-15min until gate closes. $%^&$ GOTTA RUN! I sprinted to the bus I was told to take where I begged the man to please hurry, but don't worry, after he had his smoke we were good to go. Got to the other terminal with 7min to get through security. Thank the lord no line, but of course I had water in my bag that set me off (got away with it in Switz. airport...apparently can only defy the law in one country__Noted!) Anyways, grabbed my stuff and sprinted to check what gate I was at. (I seriously was putting all Amazing Race competitors to shame..sweat was pouring..thanks for those genes dad!) This is where you have to trust me that I am not exaggerating even in the slightest. I saw the lady at the gate, I yelled (mind you,,all in Spanish) that I was on the Sevilla flight and to please wait. Well, the lady looked at me, and proceeded to shut the door so that I could not get onto the airplane. I pleaded with her, told her my plane was late (white lie..) and that I needed to get on that flight as it was last flight out that night and I had early class. I pulled the "alone, American girl" card.. AS IF that worked! Lady looked at me and told me she was not working anymore and there was nothing she could do. I cursed the language barrier and asked her where the office was. Do you have any idea how awful it is to look out the window, see the hallway thing still attached to the plane, knowing I could LITERALLY BE IN MY SEAT BY NOW, but there is nothing I could do? Fighting tears only worked so long -- had my first break down in Europe. Talked to the man in the Vueling ticket booth who made me pay 85 euro to switch flights (my 4th flight change at this point .. extremely upsetting) and told me I had no choice but to pay that or more with another flight since it was so last minute. I was to depart BCN at 7am and that I should get comfy in the airport for the night. Well I did just that...as comfy as you can get on an airport floor and trust me, I have slept in my fair share of European airports, BCN is the worst. Well, that situation was the worst. Not to mention I woke up in the middle of the night (or morning?) with food poisoning. TRUCE -- I had had enough and just wanted to be home...and too many hours later I made it home.

As I have been reminded by so many, "Hey at least it is a good story!" Yeah, okay looking back it sounds so surreal that I lived that alone... but I did. And what does not kill you only makes you stronger, right? Well I was thinking that, when I saw this sign at the airport.

YEah..I can refute that statement.

And so the story goes... my bad luck continues to follow me. How am I 100% positive? Because the forecast for Sevilla was supposed to be warm, but when I got off of my bus finally getting home, it was down pouring. I know the life I am leading over here is close to fabulous, but man oh man, one trip without a travel mishap would not be so bad! I made it, I was completely enamored by Switzerland, and once again, I thank my lucky stars for this wonderful live I have been given. I am fairly convinced my roommate Lauren is starting to get slightly nervous that she booked a flight to London with me -- seeing as she has had to relive every single one of my travel nightmares everytime I am skyping with someone. She has been warned -- she can still switch her flight.

Hope you made it to the end. Next up -- Africa on Thursday :)

Peace, Amor, Espana, y un poco chocolate de Suiza :)
Ana

When it Rains, It Pours {in Barcelona}

I am not sure how you have survived these past few weeks seeing as I have been slacking on the blogging ... but CONGRATS you have survived ... and hopefully the wait was well worth it. This last week us business kids had the pleasure of learning how to take 4 midterms in 2 days, or in my case 24 hours. Turns out caffeine can only help SO much. But I survived ... and I hope my grades reflect how hard I studied and not how little I slept...

Last weekend I took a trip to Barcelona, but before that I had one of my long lost SMS (St. Mary's School) friends come to visit here in Sevilla. Mark and his friends came here for their spring break and the poor guys did not see the sun here in Sevilla. However, we still had a great time despite the rain. What is there to do in Sevilla when there is rain? Take a 4 person bike with 5 people and go get lost in a random park ... and pray to god you survive! It was a blast. Other than that we got to see some sites, catch up, of course get a few beers for the guys, and it was awesome seeing him! I am sure there are tons of good stories I am forgetting to post, but regardless it was worth mentioning!

Me Kaylee and Mark on the back of the bike...my only pic (Read on..) with Mark.. thank god it is a good one! haha

So later that week I ventured to Barcelona. It honest to goodness started off to good to be true. Got to the metro station a tad late and the metro pulled up right as I was walking down the steps...walk off the metro to see the airport bus waiting for me, bypass a long Security line, you catch my drift. Too good to be true? Turns out ... yes. Left early Friday morning and got into Barcelona late afternoon to meet up with my roomie and SMS round two: Jordyn Ellis and Austin Scieszinski. We just walked around by our hostel and saw the marinas and Las Ramblas... a street a few kilometers long with shopping and crazy people dressed up...see below

Here are "Las Ramblas"

I loved this guy...

Kind of down by the marina and right by our hostel

After seeing what we could in the daytime, we headed down to El Palacio and saw a fountain show at night. It was BEAUTIFUL! This fountain show was by far better than Vegas' Bellagio...marginally. It was colorful and played a mixture of first opera ...not so great...and then DISNEY songs in Spanish. It was SOOO cool. There were hundreds of people here of all ages ... and this is where we met up with some more friends from UW --- you can find them anywhere around Europe! Also ran into one of my friends Tori who I met in Paris, have a class with, and who happens to live with one of my best friends from home ... SMALL world.

The fountain in front of el Palacio

From left to right we have Jordyns friend JAckie, Jordyn, Austin, Adam, me R'Taija and it was such a beautiful night...but the night was still young. After the show we were STARVING. Adam, who is a good friend of Austin and who I had met ohhh in 6th grade showed us a great place to eat. We had "tapas" so we tried potatoes, peppers, house Sangria(YUM!) and our favorite...chorizo del diablo. They were little pieces of sausage lit on fire in front of us and they had to stay on fire for 10-15 minutes and they were SO worth the wait. After dinner a few of us decided to get snazzy and head out for a night on the town. HAd a great time meeting more people and we took a metro to get to a club down by the beach...fun until I was picpocketed in the club. Happened faster than you can ever imagine and Austin even tried to track the guy down ... he was on a mission. Frankly I am glad he didn't find him because who knows what would have happened. There are worse things in this world, but man oh man that guy hit his bullseye for the night. He got my camera (hence limited pics) money keys and wallet. Silver lining? Everyone was okay and Passport/credit cards were left at home. Austin and I trooped it home later seeing as we had no money for a cab. Some guy even tried to picpocket me (for the 3rd time) and at that point I about gave him my purse since it was already empty, but Austin fended him off being the soldier that he is. He even insisted on giving me a piggy back ride part of the way since I was in heels and struggling ... I am sure we were quite the site! One American guy even approached us on the way home and Austin yelled NO NO NO GET AWAY hahaha and I proceeded to tell him to relax, the guy was honestly lost. Austin had the paranoid side down for both of us, but I have been lost in a foreign city at night (Mallorca ring a bell?) and I could sympathize with the guy. Austin set me down and we helped the lad and were on our way home ... Can't thank Austin enough but hey SMS always sticks together... Need I say more? Our class is fortunately pretty close so that if any of us would ever need help, you do not really have to ask for it. Just another reason why I am so fortunate to have the upbringing that I did ... makes a picpocket not look like the end of the world. That and the fact that mom and dad were first to assure me that it did not matter as long as I was okay and happy, and I have already received my package with an old camera and ready to play Ultimate Tourist again ... watch out!

The next day we woke up to begin what may have been one of the worst ever days to tour a city... but we made the most of it. Literally I have never seen constant rain in Europe like we did in Barcelona as it NEVER stopped raining once on that Saturday. Jordyn and I went to the ATM... and that was no treat. We got splashed on the road a few times and were already soaked before our day had began ... and we saw who we think was a homeless man wearing a garbage bag with a hole in it with his head sticking out and it looked so funny we were laughing hysterically... read on.

AFter getting money and trying to make plans for the day, and after hording as many free muffins as possible (I think that is the only thing that got Austin out of bed before 10am) we decided to take a tour bus around the city becuase HEY, it would be dry and we could see everything..right? WRONG AGAIN. We paid 30 euros to have to sit on TOP of the tour bus and have the rain come pouring down on us on wet seats. We did not want to sit down because then our pants would be wet, but it took about 5min before we got yelled at and were not really given a choice. Granted the lady did give us a SHEET OF PAPER to sit on, how nice... That is when Jordyn and I (well mostly me...this is worth taking credit of) to buy trash bags like the homeless man we saw earlier. I will never forget buying those bags and trying to poke holes through them. Kayla-- think Ace Ventura and the Rhino... what I would give to be able to post that picture of Austin making a hole with one on the wrong side of the bag... he had like a cone head the whole day as well as a hunch back. Easy to say we were making a HUGE fashion statement that day...and Jordyn and her friends are Fashion majors but at that point who cares.

Before getting back on the bus, now that we were prepared, we decided to grab a sandwich. We figured we could stand INSIDE the shop.but NO. The lady kicked us outside since there were not enough tables. Again, there were pictures but not yet posted, of us sitting outside a little sandwich shop like wet dogs not allowed inside. We had to tell her what we wanted on the sandwich from outside. Where did we eat you ask? An alley...under an awning we could find. We saw some fine art while eating...or grafiti. Like I said, always have to make the most of the situation you are given.

After lunch it was back on the bus we went. Prepared with our trash bags, we went site seeing. Mind you, "sight seeing" in cloudy, rainy environment was interesting to say the least. We would take a corner and have wind and rain in our faces that even our trash bags could not save us from! We were informed that on top of a certain mountain was the greatest view of Barcelona, well, it was a great view of a cloud! Then we went to the Olympic Stadium where they were held in Barcelona in 1992. It was really cool to see the stadium and it could hold about 50,000 people.

Me, Jordyn and Austin inside the Olympic Stadium!

Me outside of a cathedral.

After we had toured the city by bus we were all hungry, cold, and more or less ready to be done touring for the day. We decided to head for a bite to eat. Just when we thought things could not get worse, a car came by us on the side of the road and completely drenched whatever part of us was not already soaking wet. Hiloarious to them I am sure, and funny to look back on, but at the time all I could do was nod and think What Next? We got dinner and called it a night and woke up to a BEAUTIFUL morning ... and I only had 3 hours to take it all in since my flight was so early.

Austin and Jordyn being the troopers that they are, even though they had all day, got up early with me and man oh man did we make every minute count. First stop -- most touristy spot of all -- Sagrada Familia. This is a church whose original architecht died and so Gaudi took over, and the construction of it is still being done today. Gaudi is an artist that is extremely famous throughout Barcelona but this is his best work.

We did not have time to go inside and tour, so up next was Park Guell which also has Gaudi influence throughout the entire park. In my opinion, it was like a big kid Candy Land!!!

the beautiful view from the park ... you can see Sagrada Familia in the distance!!!

Me in front of the park. You can go up and admire the artwork and mostly just look out at the beautiful city ... quite a different view than I had the day before.

Right by where you walk in... so beautiful!

The crew by the park.

After we had headed in the COMPLETELY wrong direction (my bad!) which was a major uphill mistake, and after nearly dying because I walked in front of a cab (yellow ones don't stop) we finally found the metro and wanted to make one last stop before I had to leave for the airport (Was on a strict time limit...you better believe I was late!) While on the metro we were planning on taking a gondola ride and seeing some palace thing ... instead we did a DEAD SPRINT to the Fenicular ... a tram more or less and MADE it ...to have the doors shut in our face and then tease us by sitting there for a solid minute while we had no choice but to wait .. Go figure! Oh well, like I said being with good company makes it much more bearable. We had to wait like 15 min. for the next one to come and at this point we were not really sure what we were taking or where we were going; turns out we had another beautiful view of the city. We ran outside, literally took a few snapshots (See below) and sprinted back to make the tram we just had taken up and made it BARELY!! take that karma.

One last shot of the SMS crew.

At this point my friends had already left me because I was late, and the "connecting Metros" HARDLY connected and we had to sprint (no lie) from one to the next, probably a 1/2 mile, and I still managed to be very late. Like I said, they were troopers for hangin in there with me and it was worth every minute of it (well, at least to me!) Finally made it back to the hostel, said goodbye, and I was on my own to get to the airport with some time to spare. Got to the bus, paid for a ticket, turns out was on the wrong bus, sprinted to the other one, he said no I was originally on the right one, the guy on the original bus shut the door in my face and drove off ... you catch my drift on how the trip went, right? I pity the fool who had to sit next to my sweaty self, but oh well, I had my free muffins that we horded so I was content to be on my way to the airport *FINALLY*. I saw enough on that last day to know that I want to return, and so my tickets are already booked to see it with my girlfriends in MAy and I could not be more thrilled!!

Have many more adventures to tell about Gibraltar and tomorrow I am Switzerland bound so stay tuned for more!

Peace, Amor, Espana
Ana :)

PS -- Since last post, would like to say have been saying extra prayers for Aunt Mel, the people in Japan, and everyone involved in Lybia events !!