Hanging out in Switzerland

At Balmer's Hostel

Eating Swiss milk chocolate and hanging out in the Alps was where I spent my past weekend. I am currently interning for a program called Bus2Alps that leads student trips to various places in Europe. With my internship I receive free trips, so this weekend I went to Interlaken for free! We drove overnight on Thursday and got into Interlaken at about 4 in the morning. We stayed in one of the oldest, most famous hostels in Europe: Balmers. It was filled with students from everywhere and was cute and fun and very loud and lively. The first day I went snowshoeing with Erika and 3 new spring students.

Ice Skating 

Just the five of us went to the top of the mountain with a guide and hiked to the very top over the course of a few hours. Our guide Ronnie was this hilarious Swiss man that told the worst jokes and helped us avoid avalanche areas. It was my first time snowshoeing and it was so hard! It probably didn’t help that there was a blizzard going on and that we were going straight up hill. But I had a great time, and the mountains are absolutely stunning. Most of my friends were in Interlaken this past weekend, either on the school trip or with Bus2Alps so it felt like Gonzaga filled the town. We spent the afternoon in the hot tub relaxing. And I had the best Thai food of my life; 4 months of Italian food can be a bit exhausting. That night I went ice skating with a group of friends. There were only about 5 other people there so we played hockey for a while.

Snowshoeing with our guide Ronnie and Erika

Struggling with my snowshoes 

Night sledding with Erika

Finally found the lake!

On Saturday Erika and Matt and I explored the city and tried to walk to one of the 2 lakes. We didn’t realize how far the one we were trying to find was and gave up after about an hour and a half. That night Erika and I went night sledding with the outdoor adventures team. I was a bit nervous to be sledding down a mountain in the dark, and I didn’t really see how it would be any more fun than regular sledding. We had heard such great things that we decided to try it out. It was by far the best part of the weekend. We were taken up to the top of the mountain and go down a freshly plowed ski run on toboggan sleds that you steer with your feet. Everyone was given green glow sticks to wear on their back so you don’t run into anyone. It took about an hour to get down and it was so much fun! We then had fondue dinner at the bottom of the mountain. On Sunday Erika and I walked to the closer lake, which had to be the most beautifully clear water I have ever seen. I love Switzerland and how clean and neat and beautiful it is. It was an amazing weekend!