Europe Update! 6/18 – 6/22 The Final Days, Zürich, and Flying Home This is the last one folks! After spamming everyone with Europe pictures over the course of summer I’m finally wrapping it up since I managed to slack enough that it’s the new school year. I don’t have many pictures from our final few days, I guess I was just so caught up in soaking everything up before I had to leave. So as a result I’ll keep it short and sweet! After leaving Aunt Gina and Uncle Steve back in Italy (and the bottom of my wine box giving out and shattering my bottles on the Vicenza sidewalk), my friends and I mainly just hung around Bluche. Everyone was just relaxing and I think soaking up the final few days of the program. I myself spent a lot of time on the windowsill in my friends’ room just chatting and soaking up the sight of the beautiful mountains. Over the next few days we went back up the funicular to Crans-Montana where I made sure to buy plenty of chocolate, and just enjoy the tiny town. The next afternoon we had our final kitchen day were we made cold pea soup, sushi, desserts galore, and a million other things I can’t quite remember because I didn’t work on those particular dishes. Getting to learn to roll sushi was pretty cool though! After lunch Fern and I squeezed one more ride up to Crans-Montana where we rented a paddleboat and paddled around the lake for a while. I kept us steady (thanks dad for the boating skills) and Fern played photographer. We reluctantly descended down the mountain only to be caught up in the frenzy of prepping for the big farewell dinner! Every dressed up their best, we took group photos, and ate an amazing dinner of fondue where the chefs melted the cheese off the wheel to order. I must have gone through like a million lactase pills though. After the official celebration was over and we bid farewell to some of our group members who were headed to catch late-night flights, the rest of the program congregated in the nearby flower field for one last hurrah. The next morning everyone parted ways and I traveled to Zürich with a few program mates where we explored a bit of the downtown scene, grabbed some authentic vodka pasta, and I’m just drooling thinking about it, and stumbled down it’s medieval streets to happen upon the local police band. We stayed for a few numbers before picking up a bottle of rose and heading back to the hotel. We had gotten lucky and my friend and I spent our last night in Europe in an upgraded hotel suite in bathrobes and sipping wine while trying to figure out what time was best to hit the airport. Eventually it was time to return home and so we went our separate ways. A plane ride and 5 movies later I was back home! To say this trip changed my life would be ironic, but also completely true. I got to experience so many things, go so many places, and meet so many people, and really I found out more about myself along the way. No one comes back from studying abroad and says they wished they hadn’t done it, and it’s true!
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Europe Update! 6/10 – 6/12 Lausanne Switzerland, Evian France, and Sienna Italy The last adventure we had during our first few Switzerland days was visiting Lausanne. It was a quick trip where we quickly toured a restaurant, then were sent off on our own. Deciding to be adventurous a few friends and I caught a steamer across the lake to Evian, France. Yeah, like the bottled water. That’s where it comes from! Since it was such a rapid pace I missed out on seeing the Olympic museum they have, because Lausanne is the “Olympic Capital” due to it hosting the International Olympic Committee. Regardless, it was still a beautiful city, and it was a clear sunny day on the lake! Following our lake adventure, we traveled a few hours by train into Italy the following day. A fellow NAU Italian professor met us at the train station in Sienna, Italy. I had been there before this particular visit, but it was still just as charming and historically awing as before! We stayed in small hotel along the city wall, and embarked later that afternoon on an expansive scavenger hunt! Halfway along my group realized that that we felt like we were rushing too much to enjoy everything we saw so we slowed down and stopped for delicious limoncello and meringue gelato! We also passed by a drummer for one of the contrade practicing by his district’s fountain! We saw the famous Piazza del Campo, the shops, and cathedrals! The best however, was a very intimate tour we had of the Noble Caterpillar Contrada. Siena is divided into contrade, or neighborhoods since the medieval times, and to this day they uphold their rivalries they have as neighbors and participate in the Palio horse race each year. The energy and passion surrounding the Palio for the people of sienna is like hardcore Super Bowl fans times 100. To go along with the bareback horserace itself, there are parades with drummers, flags, and costumes/uniforms. Our guide stressed how important it was to recognize that the contrade are not “reenacting” these events, but living it- these traditions have only not been held a handful of times since they started in the 15th century, mainly due to the World Wars. We were let into their private chapel, got to see their headquarters, previous uniforms, flags, and even some of their Palios (the ‘trophy’ a contrada wins is a hand painted cloth banner). It’s too much to write about honestly, but it had to have been one of my favorite experiences from the whole trip! While we were in Sienna we also took an amazing handmade pasta class. I got to make potato gnocchi, and cantucci which is like a biscotti! Both nights we were there we had very long, very European style dinners with so much food and wine I was done by the end of the first hour! The food however was absolutely amazing, and I can say I left Siena slightly bigger fan of red wine than when I had arrived! Europe Update! 6/6 - 6/9 Rotterdam, Bluche Switzerland, and Hotel Weisshorn I know it’s been a while and I’ve got to finish these posts so I can finally be done with them. I’m kind of throwing a few days together here because it’s easier! For our last day in Holland we visited the large port city of Rotterdam. While there we took a wonderful tour of the amazing Hotel New York, an old office for the Holland America line. The rooms are each uniquely furnished, and their level of attention and detail and just overall hospitality was amazing. I walked away from the tour really wanting to work for them. After that, we walked across the canal to the Fenix Food Factory, which was a collaborative where different vendors set up shops within all specializing in a food or drink of some sort. On top of a presentation on how all the venders work together, I got to snag a warm, rosemary caramel stoop waffle- so I was a happy camper! Following that we later got a guided tour of the SS Rotterdam, one of the cruise ships of the Holland America line- the S.S. Rotterdam! The next day we all boarded the train to Amsterdam and flew to Switzerland where we traveled on the most gorgeous train ride I will probably ever have the pleasure of experiencing. We passed snowcapped mountains, crystal blue lakes, and rolling green hillsides. We were staying in the very tiny town of Bluche, where the Les Roches hospitality school is. It sits right below the ski resort of Crans-Montana. This time we stayed in their dorms (they have housekeeping?!?!?) and just were able to rest and relax. We spent the next few days just exploring and relaxing in the fresh mountain air. The next trip we took was down the mountain, across the valley to Saint Luc, where we did an amazing hike to the Hotel Weisshorn, an old Swiss chalet-style hotel nestled on the peak of a mountain. It was a lengthy, yet ambling, hike across multiple waterfalls and through misty trees. I felt like Heidi practically every second of it. |
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