So I did a few quick calculations and figured out that during these past two semesters I’ve visited 10 countries (2 of which I lived in), tried to communicate in countless languages (of the 3 that I know [English, French, and Spanish], I’ve found that a fourth, body language, has been the most useful) and consumed an obscene amount of calories in some of the best eats (and drinks!) that Europe and Africa have to offer. Oh yeah, and sometimes I studied.
I did the bulk of my traveling during my first semester (see former posts here, here, and here), but also spent the entirety of my winter break on the move. I had 17 days – from Dec 21st – Jan 7th – and a hell of a time. This is part 1 of those adventures.
The first leg of my trip was with my friend, Mariah, and her brother, Dylan. We left Granada by night train on December 20th, 2012 and arrived in Barcelona the next morning.
Restless Wisdom: Always pay more for things like reclining seats on a night train. Seriously. Frugality is one thing, but don’t be a cheap idiot.
We only had a 24hour layover in Barcelona, so we made the most of it. Highlights from the trip include meeting a fellow traveler from South Africa and touring around with him all day, seeing all of the architecture by Gaudi (and hypothesizing as to whether or not he was on hallucinogens), visiting the beach, and some amazing vegetarian paella.
We then continued North, into France. The intention was to get to Geneva, Switzerland by sundown and we just barely made it.
Restless Wisdom: Euroroail passes are not always the golden ticket that you may have been hoping them to be. Most major lines (as in, International) require you to pay a supplement and book your seats ahead, but in person. Further, seats do sell out and *gasp* major rail lines sometimes get cancelled. Be flexible.
Happily, our longest layover for that trip was in the lovely little town of Nîmes, France. We really only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures and buy some more hummus, then continued on.
We did make it to Geneva, where we stayed for one night. Since we were continuing on in Switzerland, we all withdrew large amounts of Swiss Francs. Now, I’d gotten used to multi-colored currency, but Swiss money is the closet I’ve ever seen to real-life monopoly money. However, once I figured out the exchange rate, and then how much basic necessities cost, I was anything but amused. Switzerland is EXPENSIVE. But it is also beautiful.
(Ok, so I didn’t take that many good pictures in Geneva…)
Our next stop was Zermatt, Switzerland. Now, the first time I had ever heard of Zermatt was the day I found out that we were going there. To give you some background that I might have benefitted from, Zermatt is a tiny little ski village in the top of the Swiss Matterhorn Mountains. It is in the district of Visp, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and can only be accessed by a complex network of trains and trams. When we got into Zermatt (all of those trains and trams later), it was at night and it was breath-taking. To begin with, all of the architecture is strictly Swiss countryside (think Heidi, the children’s book), and no exhaust-emitting vehicles are permitted (to preserve the view of the surrounding Matterhorns, of course), so everyone schlepps around the snow/sludge covered roads in horse-drawn carriages or on skis. It is a breath-takingly beautiful city which, in my opinion, is actually the Who-village from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. This place was the ultimate Christmas town, which was convenient since we arrived the day before Christmas and stayed through the holiday.
I ended up parting from Mariah and Dylan earlier than expected, and doing some solo traveling. Where to? You’ll just have to stay tuned to find out!
Restless Spirit Syndrome 