Adventures in Switzerland

"More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace

mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost,

if you can conceive of such a combination."

-Wilbur Wright

I couldn't have said it better had I invented the airplane myself.

The most common reaction I've received from my family and friends upon seeing the pictures of me soaring through the air attached to a piece of metal and cloth is: "you don't look scared at all!" or, "you look so calm." My response to that is this: how can you not be at peace when you feel lighter than air and are experiencing the most unique and tranquil sensation of your life?

I can't even come up with the words to describe the feeling of being lifted off the ground by the wind. It was nothing short of magic. If I knew even the first thing about physics, maybe I wouldn't be so amazed by it, but getting swooped up off the earth by an invisible hand was probably the most fascinating part of the entire experience. I was expecting to have to jump off a cliff of some sort and hopefully be caught by the wind. I was not anticipating just being swept into the air mid-run.

Once in the air, it was quiet, pleasant, clear. The opposite of what I assume sky diving would be like. The guy I was flying with pointed out the air pockets we were being carried on, especially when we started to trail a bird. "Look up ahead, see how that bird is being lifted up?" As soon as this sentence left his mouth, I found myself also being lifted up on that same burst of air. Incredible.

A few minutes of simple coasting later, we start with the tricks. Imagine being on a roller-coaster without the roller-coaster actually being there. He would pull us up to the point where we were almost stopped, then point us straight down and we'd dive for a few second before being evened out again.

Landing was an adventure in itself. I realized as we were getting closer and closer to the ground that my instructor hadn't mentioned anything about what to do during the landing as he had for the takeoff and during the flight. Right as I began to panic, we just touched down on our extremely padded stomachs and slid a few hundred feet to a stop. Painless!

So, the whole reason I was able to have this awesome adventure was because I have a friend, Lauren, studying in Geneva, and we spent a day there before we headed to Interlaken. Three words to describe Geneva: beautiful, French, expensive. I had been prepared for English to be widely spoken in this city, but alas, it was all French. Interestingly enough, in Interlaken, it was all German. Good thing I don't speak a word of either of those languages.

View of Geneva from the World Health Organization

Lauren is interning at the World Health Organization, so she gave me a tour of the headquarters (awesome!) then we went over to the United Nations. That night for dinner we treated ourselves to a Swiss specialty, fondue.

Lauren and I at the UN

Fondue dinner :)

The next day, Lauren, her friend Caitlin and I took a three hour train ride to Interlaken for our day of extreme sports. Here's some of my other favorite pics from hang gliding, and some from our hike afterwards:

Photo by Lauren

View from our take-off point

Train tracks going straight up the mountain

Caitlin, Lauren and I

In the town of Interlaken

The train ride from Milan to Geneva on my way there was also never lacking in beautiful views:

Lake Maggiore outside of Milan

Train yard in Switzerland

Final Stop, Milano!

Back in the grand country of Italy, wrapping up our Spring Break...

First stop was the Museum of Science and Technology, including many of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions! Followed by...

A castle!

And the most amazing ride we found in a fair behind the castle! Ari, Erin and I are in there getting spun every which way.

Chocolate fountain at a gelateria. Needless to say, we were thrilled.

Celebrating St. Patty's Day with the rest of the non-Italians and green beer.

Oh and a live Irish band...

Milan Duomo

Museum of Modern Art! Quintessential Futurist piece by Boccioni, "Unique Forms of Continuity and Space".

Piazza del Duomo with Vittorio Emanuele Gallery

Modern "Art"

Parlez-Vous Français?

No, I don't speak French. Or Hungarian, or Spanish, or Catalan...so instead I will just stare back at you with a completely dumbfounded look on my face, va bene? Va bene.

Ok so I tried a little harder than that (except in Hungary, I actually could not even begin to figure out that language), but that's not an incorrect picture of how my week in Budapest, Paris and Barcelona went. Luckily my travel buddy Hannah speaks French very well, so she acted as our translator in Paris, while my other friend Erin and I put together our six and four years of Spanish, respectively, to try to manuever our way around the mainly Catalan-speaking city. Who knew Spanish wasn't the primary language in Barcelona? Not us. The trip was bookended by trips to Pisa and Milan, in the country that is feeling more and more like home every day.

Along with new languages, it was a week filled with new foods, people, attitudes and sights. At this point in my adventure abroad, I found myself comparing these new experiences to my life in Italy, rather than to my life in the states. The relief I felt upon arriving in Milan, consequently, was overwhelming. How is it that Italy and the Italian language are this comfortable to me now? That when I heard Italian being spoken in a foreign country, I picked it up the way I would pick up English? It's incredible to me that I am at that point in my Italian studies, and I am beyond grateful to even have the opportunity to connect with another culture on as deep a level as I have.

So, here's some quick thoughts on each of my destinations before I bombard you with pictures of the week:

A similarity shared between Budapest, Paris and Barcelona: as a group of American girls, we did not get stared at/pointed at/yelled at hardly as much as anywhere in Italy, if at all. Pleasant, pleasant surprise.

Budapest: Magical castle fairy-tale land - that is the way I described it to Stella when I got home. But actually, that is the most accurate description of this city...there's a castle district and I took a bath in a yellow palace. However, there's also a strange juxtaposition between the awe-inspiring mixture of the east and the west, and the overbearing feeling of isolation and desolation present as one walks through the streets of this ex-communist country. Also, to go off my first point, it seemed as if Hannah, Ari and I were never even given a second thought when we passed anybody on the street. The city isn't a huge tourist hub, so I'm not sure if it's because of this or in spite of it that we felt almost invisible. As I mentioned before, the language was indecipherable, which led to some funny bouts of hand gesturing and blank staring. Luckily, the majority of the people we encountered spoke at least some English, so we were able to get around without any major problems.

Except that one time we missed our flight to Paris...oops. After realizing we were on-time at the wrong terminal, an hour of wrong buses and frustrating directions later we were being told that yes, there's five minutes to take-off, of course you missed your flight. Fortunately, there was another one a few hours later instead of the next day, so we got to spend the day in the airport! So fun!

Paris: The first word that came to mind as a took my first look at the Seine was "romantic". I had always heard that about Paris but never really believed it, but that is not the case anymore. Maybe it's the architecture or the people or the low, soft lighting on the streets, but this place surpassed every expectation I had of it. Especially when it came to the stereotype that Parisians aren't the nicest of people and refuse to speak French to foreigners. This I found to be completely untrue, even the opposite. People went out of their way to be nice to us, and would either speak in a mix of French and English or ask which we would like them to speak in. The only exception was one older man who we asked directions from. A typical grumpy, respond-in-English kind of person, I found it funny that he was so exactly like the image I had of all Parisians.

Barcelona: Sun! Warmth! Gaudì! Barcelona in a nutshell. We got to meet up with Evan and her sister for dinner and breakfast while we were there, and it was generally just relaxing and slower-paced, seeing as we had walked ALL over two cities in the previous four days. I learned a lot, about the Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudì and his amazing, surrealist, expressionist and avant-garde work, and about the history of Catalonia - a region of Spain I didn't know existed until I arrived in it. It is partially autonomous from Spain, and carries a huge sense of identity. The language, a mix of pretty much all romantic languages, but mostly resembles French, was also an interesting surprise. And the food, amazing. Tapas and paella and stuffed churros were wonderful.

Milan: Sufficiently exhausted and with screaming feet, we arrived in Milan for our last night of the break. Surprisingly, there was a pretty big St. Patrick's day crowd so we got to listen to a live Irish band, drink green beer and Irish car bombs and pretend to be Irish with the rest of the Italians. Besides the Duomo and the Galleria right next to it, there's not much to boast about Milan. It was just a great transition back into the Italian culture and language while still experiencing something new!