Not off to a good start…

Have you ever wanted to go somewhere, but for whatever reason decided to make a pit stop in a completely different country just because it was cheap? No? Well, I know I have. My best friend and I had been dreaming of going to Switzerland for months. We finally got the chance to do so in early April. However, we decided to take a stop in Germany just because it was affordable (please you guys, don’t do this if you don’t have a concrete plan). We flew from Amsterdam to Berlin and spent the entire day there just walking around and trying to find things to do. Well…let’s just say that better things were said about Berlin’s night life. Although it was raining all afternoon, I think it could have been more enjoyable had we not had to carry around our massive travel backpacks the entire day. You want to know why we did this? Because we did not get a hotel in Berlin. We arrived in the morning and bought train tickets to Munich for that same night. Around 9pm, we headed to the train station, and we mentally prepared ourselves for the 10-hour overnight train ride. Despite this, I do want to say that overall, we did enjoy ourselves. We went to a couple restaurants, saw some landmarks, and even went shopping. My favorite part of that day, however, was the walk to the train station. We walked through a gorgeous walkway right next to a canal and I got some stunning photos.

Our day in Munich started off a lot better. We arrived at the train station around 7am, right in time for breakfast. Luckily, I was able to fall asleep on the train (something I was scared might not happen, considering I do not tend to fall asleep in anything other than a bed). Once we arrived, we walked to the hotel and although we couldn’t check in at that time, we were allowed to leave our bags there. We spent the day walking around the city and doing some more shopping. I’ve said this once before, but I will say it again, please do not go anywhere without planning out an itinerary. I am not saying it was boring, I’m just saying we could have enjoyed it a lot more. The highlight of that day was the ice cream we bought at a tiny shop; it was SO creamy and sweet, but it had a natural taste to it, I’m not sure how to describe it. Luckily, we had a hotel that day, so we went back at night and were able to decompress. Unfortunately, our sleep was not too long, being that we woke up at 4am the following morning to catch a 5am bus from Munich to Zurich, Switzerland.

Finally, we made it to Switzerland. The first day there, we left our bags at the hotel and walked around the city center for a bit. I will admit, the center looks more like a small town, but it has its charm (it also has the Lindt store). We did not do a lot of exploring in Switzerland because the real reason we were there was to go to Interlaken. We took the train to Interlaken and wow wow wow it was STUNNING. Snow-capped mountains everywhere and the most amazing pasta restaurant in Switzerland. We went up one of the mountains and ended up in a farm with a lot of cows we took many pictures of.

The second day was the highlight of the trip. We took a train to the outskirts of Zurich to go paragliding off the top of a mountain. I want to make it clear, I did not do the paragliding, my friend did. I was just the photographer/videographer. I did not do it not because I did not want to, but because I was not going to pay the $250 price tag. Regardless, I got some great shots of my friend in the air, and of course the view was INSANE. I loved Switzerland and will definitely be returning one day.