Switzerland

During the last weekend in November, which of course was Thanksgiving in the States, my friend Melanie and I went to Switzerland. We wanted to go somewhere because we had a long weekend, and after doing some research we found that Geneva was the cheapest destination to fly to. Of course, we had heard many times about how exorbitantly expensive Switzerland was, but we figured that through a combination of Couch Surfing, cooking and snacking, we could work our way around the economic difficulties.

The Fribourg Cathedral

We also knew that, aside from the expenses, the weather would be less than ideal. I had braced myself for arctic cold, for wrapping up in lots of layers and needing frequent coffee and mulled wine breaks; but I had not thought about the possibility that the best thing in Switzerland - the incredible mountains - would be completely covered by clouds and fog. It was a shame, because the whole time we were there we only got to see the country's iconic snow-capped peaks once from a train. It was absolutely breathtaking, because the train track was elevated and we could see the city of Luasanne stretching down the hill towards Lake Geneva, with several snow-capped peaks in the distance, all under a dramatic pink and orange sunset sky! Unfortunately, it was impossible to capture on my camera, but here's a picture from Google that approximates what we saw.

View similar to the one we saw in the train

In spite of these difficulties and misfortunes, we still saw a lot, met some incredible people and had an amazing trip! So, without further ado, let's begin.

Geneva

We flew into Geneva, as I mentioned before, because it was the cheapest airport to reach from Madrid. I had not heard great things about Geneva, so we had decided not to stay for long. We were arriving late at night, and had initially planned to try and catch the last train to another town, where we had a Couch Surfing host already lined up, but realized that our flight was going to be too late. When we were unable to find anyone to host us in Geneva, we started to panic, because there were no hostels and all of the hotels were expensive.

Some random buildings around Geneva

In the end, we wound up having to fork out the money for a hotel room at the last minute, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise - as I never stay in hotels, I felt like I was living in the lap of luxury, the continental breakfast was fantastic (we called it our "Thanksgiving meal," as we arrived in Geneva late on Thanksgiving day), and they even gave us a day pass for the city's public transit, which we later found out was extremely expensive to buy on your own. So, it all turned out for the best, even if we had to pay more than we wanted!

Geneva Cathedral

Inside the Geneva Cathedral

Geneva was pretty and had a few nice things to see, but in general I agreed with the majority of people who had told me that it's nothing to write home about. However, we did get to see the United Nations building, which was pretty cool!

The United Nations building

We also found a park with some beautiful fall leaves, something we had been missing in Madrid, so that was another pleasant surprise.

Beautiful fall colors

Fribourg

After leaving Geneva, we headed to Fribourg, a small town about an hour and a half from Geneva by train. Chances are you've never heard of Fribourg, and neither had I until we decided to go there. The story of how we wound up choosing to spend part of our trip here is interesting. 

The beautiful streets and buildings of Fribourg

When I was looking for Couch Surfing hosts in Geneva, I found a girl who sounded really awesome and who I really wanted to stay with. However, as I read her profile more carefully, I realized that she did not in fact live in Geneva but in Fribourg; she explained that due to some glitch in the Couch Surfing website, it said on her profile Geneva even though she did not live there. Anyway, she sounded so cool, that I decided to Google Fribourg, and when I saw how lovely it was in the pictures, I decided to message her and, if she would host us, we would go there. We didn't really have any specific plans of what places to visit in Switzerland, so it was a way of helping organize our trip.

The Medieval walls and a giant stone bridge in Fribourg

While the town was just as beautiful as it had appeared on Google, it was unfortunately very cold and very foggy, which made sightseeing a bit difficult. The fog was so strong that even the tops of buildings were indistinguishable. However, as you can see in the pictures above, the streets were full of picturesque old buildings, many dating back to the 1400's and some to the city's foundation in the late 12th century. There was also a very cool swinging bridge that crossed the River Sarine, giving stunning views of the cliffs on top of which the city is built.

The beautiful swinging bridge in Fribourg

Bern

Our last stop in Switzerland was in the capital, Bern. In Fribourg and Geneva, the dominant language had been French: that was what everyone was speaking in the streets, all the signs in shops and public spaces were in French, etc. However, even though it's only about a twenty-minute train ride from Fribourg to Bern, once we got off the train there we felt like we had crossed over into a completely different country; absolutely everything was in German!

German signs in the Bern main station

In spite of being such a small country, Switzerland has four main languages - mostly thanks to its location between Germany, France and Italy. The first three languages therefore come from these other countries - German, French and Italian - and the fourth language, called Romansh, is a strange mix of all three. It was interesting to see firsthand how different this makes each part of the country feel. Imagine driving twenty minutes to the next town over and finding that nobody speaks your language!

A sign from Google showing the four Swiss languages

Anyway, aside from everything being in German, Bern was a very beautiful and interesting place. Unfortunately, as had been the case in Fribourg, the fog was so heavy that it was sometimes difficult to see the tops of buildings, and completely impossible to see the distant Alps, but it actually made for a mysterious and mystical experience at night when the street lights and Christmas decorations were illuminated. It felt like walking in a dream-city to me.

The charming streets of Bern

We also found a creepy but fascinating New-Age bookshop in a dungeon-like space underneath one of the main streets. There were plenty of other bars, shops and restaurants housed in these cellar-like areas, but this shop was certainly the most interesting. We had to walk around with candles because there was no electric lighting in some of the rooms. It added to the magical and unreal feeling of the city.

The creepy bookshop

One of the main reasons I had wanted to go to Bern - and Switzerland in general - was to experience Christmas markets. While Germany is really the country which is best known for Christmas markets, I did read about a few throughout Switzerland, and the one in Bern was quaint and charming, even if it was quite small. We enjoyed warming up with some glühwein - hot mulled wine - which was actually necessary because it was too cold to stay outside for long periods of time!

Some pictures in the Christmas market

Oh, the People You'll Meet

While the crappy weather may have put a damper on most of our trip, what made up for this and really made the whole ting special were the amazing people we met along the way! In Fribourg and Bern we stayed with people through Couch Surfing, and on the way back to the Geneva airport we hitchhiked (very briefly) with one of the coolest guys I've ever met.

Our lovely host in Fribourg, Sophie

In Fribourg, we were hosted by Sophie, a girl who we instantly connected with. She had some amazing stories about her travels through Asia and Africa, and taught us a lot about Swiss politics and economics. She also helped me have the only "authentic" fondue experience I could afford (it was so expensive, even at the grocery store!) and gave us excellent advice for touring Fribourg.

Adrian, our host in Bern

In Bern, we stayed with Adrian, a German guy living and studying in Switzerland. The first night we arrived, he had prepared a delicious vegetarian meal (we returned the favor the next night) and then took us out to one of the coolest parties I've ever been to. It was in an artists' squat in the middle of town, and the atmosphere was just really chill and awesome. Everyone seemed so accepting and friendly, and it was one of the few times I've gone out where I didn't feel judged at all!

The awesome party Adrian took me to

Finally, although I don't have a picture of him, we met Gabriel when he saved our frozen thumbs and picked us up on the side of the road in Bern. We had been told by all of our new friends that hitchhiking was really easy and safe in Switzerland, and very common thanks to the exorbitant prices of the trains (which we had already experienced firsthand). With Adrian's help, we made signs and waited in Bern to try and find someone who could give us a lift back to Geneva. We gave ourselves plenty of time and knew we could catch the train if it didn't work, but after 20 frigid minutes waiting with our thumbs out, which by that point were quite literally stinging with pain, a guy stopped and offered to give us a lift.

Melanie with our hitchhiking sign

He could only take us to the next town over, but we figured anything would help and were thrilled someone would stop. During the unfortunately short ride, we got to talk to him about his life - which I don't have time to go into now, as this post is already extremely long - and ended up exchanging Facebook information in case our paths should cross again someday. It was a wonderful ending to an already great trip!