Day Nineteen - Vevey, Switzerland

Day Nineteen – Vevey, Switzerland

Hello from country number 3! Today consisted of travel, travel, and more travel. We all met at 6:30 A.M. in our hostel lobby to get ready to go to Switzerland! We had a lot of connecting trains so we had to split up into groups of four (2 guys and 2 girls) so Caitlin, Eric, Alex, and I were all together and just had to make sure that the other 3 were on the right train at all times…basically an expanded version of the buddy system. Thank goodness not all chivalry is dead because I would’ve struggled carrying my suitcases up the flights of stairs we went up at the pace we were going without some assistance (thanks Caleb and Eric haha). We were booking it from train to train and at one point we all had 10 minutes to get all 21 of us off a train, go across the train station to a different platform, and get all of us and our luggage onto another train. I don’t know how we didn’t leave anyone behind but thank goodness we didn’t!

To be honest, it’s getting to that point in the trip where we’re all starting to lose a little morale and things are starting to wear down on us. We’re all a little homesick, a little annoyed with each other, and a little ready for America. But this is where I know you just have to realize what an amazing opportunity this is and stick it out! God has been so good to us on this trip and though a few things have been frustrating, part of the learning experience is working through it. I know I’m going to look back on this trip and appreciate how much I learned not only about history, geography, different cultures, international marketing, travel and tourism, but how to do some hard things. How to be around the same 21 people for 28 days and not bite their heads off. How to serve when all you want to do is indulge yourself. How to glorify God when you’re thousands of miles away from everyone and everything that you’re used to encouraging you in that way. I’m so thankful for every part of this journey even though it’s hard. And c’mon, I’m in Europe…how can I really complain about that?!

So anyways, we spent a lot of time traveling today (pretty much from 6:30-2:30 today) but we finally arrived to the beautiful town of Vevey, Switzerland! The train ride was absolutely gorgeous when we started getting close because we rolled right through and around the Alps and over and around Lake Geneva. Soooo picturesque. The entire train ride was straight from a postcard. No joke. And then when we got even closer we could see the little sailboats along the royal blue water with the alps drifting into the clouds in the background. Again, how can I complain??

So we got off the train, settled into our hostel, and went and explored the town. We don’t have our Swiss Rail passes until tomorrow so we couldn’t travel anywhere else but we walked around this quaint little town and went and looked inside some of the shops. They have GREAT shopping here someone please hold me back! The downside is that the average income here is about four times what it is in America so everything is CRAZY expensive. Example? A Big Mac is 11.50 not including fries or a drink. No thank you. And I don’t recall ever seeing our McDonald’s serving “McWine”…? So anyways after experiencing some sticker shock, we went to this cute little local restaurant that served burgers and fries, Switzerland style. The Swiss cheese on the burgers was to die for! We’re such Americans tho…we’re so used to free refills and all the luxuries that we take for granted in America…like free ketchup packets for example. We were all enjoying our burgers and fries and Caitlin went to go get us come ketchup and only after we all opened our packets and started drowning our fries in them, did the owner come up to us and tell us that would be $0.40 per packet. Ugh Switzerland you’re killing me! This town is the most beautiful place we’ve stayed yet (you can see Lake Geneva and the Alps literally RIGHT outside of our window….no exaggeration) but the price of everything is giving us all love/hate relationships with Switzerland!

Since we couldn’t use our rail passes yet and all the shops and restaurants close around 5:30 here, Dr. Miller cooked dinner for us in the hostel (mom you would’ve been proud, I helped cooked most all of it!) and then we mainly hung here the rest of the night. It was time to catch up on some assignments for the class, shower, do laundry, and relax. Traveling will take it out of you!

One of my favorite moments of the day had to have been when we ran into a guy from Roswell, Georgia. He heard us talking and recognized a sweet, southern accent and came up and talked to us and we found out he's a Dawgs fan! Dad, they're everywhere :) It was so nice to have a little taste of home!

I think all of us girls are about to watch Marie Antoinette since we’re inspired by the Palace of Versailles yesterday J

Until next time,

MC