Avery's Travel Blog

Hi again everyone!

This is probably going to be a longer blog post. As I am recaping two months.

Here are the highlights

Now for the next couple photos. I was very fortunate to be able to tag along with my boyfriend to stay at a few luxury hotels while I’ve been here (thanks to an awesome hotel deal his work provides) The first one we stayed in was the Dolder Grand in Zurich.

The next day after we checked out we were able to go see the last show of the touring Lion king show they had in Zurich.

Moving on to April

For my birthday, Nico gifted me a trip to Florence Italy. Here are the photos from that trip. We took a night flight on the Thursday before my birthday. Got checked into our airbnb and then went to go explore and grab a cocktail. The weather was so nice and warm. I didn’t realize how much I missed the sun while I’ve been in Switzerland.

For the rest of April,

Hey everyone!

Here is a recap of the end of January/February in Switzerland.

In the end of January me and my boyfriend Nico went to a famous annual hot air balloon festival they hold in Château-d’Oex.

Also towards the end of January to the beginning of February, I had my mom, Alexa, Mario and Ms. Jen visiting me here. They got to meet Nico for the first time. Below is photos from our adventures. Fun fact I am now walking the border collie dog in my free time. To help out the owners of the airbnb my family stayed in.

After this trip I only had a little time left in between my semesters at the university. So we had one final goodbye to the students from last semester.

Hello all, sorry for the super late update on my life but here are the highlights.

I have been quite busy socially this first semester here. Between pregames and parties. To chill hangs at a small hole in the wall irish pub in town. I even hosted my first girls wine and cheese night here at my place. Hopefully more hosting events in the spring!

I have decided I am highly interested in moving back here to gain my masters degree and continue my life here. So I am manifesting that for after bachelors graduation!

Since my last post on the 25th of September. I am now dating the guy with the glasses on the left of the big group photo on my last post. His name is Nicolas. Its been going very well with him too! I have now met almost his entire family. Coincidentally enough, before I met his mother, she had been learning English on Duolingo. When she found out we had met she started learning more! So here is a quick recap of how we met. We got introduced to each other through friends and started talking after that. The next day he had to leave to go back to his Swiss military duties (its mandatory here for all men for a certain time period). We mostly got to know each other over texts and sometimes I saw him if he was able to come back to Neuchâtel for the weekend. His time in the military was officially over in early November. So since then we have been taking weekend train trips on Saturdays usually. We have been to the capital Bern, Lausanne, Spietz and Gruyeres. As well as weekly date nights typically at the movie theatre. I have seen three movies here so far. The biggest difference in theatres here is that somewhere in the middle of the movie, they give you a 10-15 minute intermission to go use the bathroom. America needs to start doing that now!

Spietz was definitely an interesting travel story. We were trying to go see the christmas markets in Montreux (christmas markets are no joke in this country) The winds must have been bad the night before because on our second train to Montreux, everyone on the train was asked to disembark at this random stop. We then had to take a random bus to a nearby ski town that had another train station in hopes of catching another train to Montreux. Those first issues with the train followed us to the next station. Come to find out, all trains for the rest of that day were cancelled due to a fallen tree on the tracks. So we were sort of stuck in this tiny ski town. With one cafe (which we had already eaten at), a few stores and a tiny grocery. Our next plan of action was to find another way out of this town since trains were out of the equation. All I wanted to do is to go to a Christmas market, so we planned on taking the next bus to a nearby town called Spietz for their market. 45 minutes pass. Its cold and snowing and no sign of the bus showing up. We had ultimately run out of options except for hitchhiking. We flagged down a blue car with a german guy driving and we asked if he was going to that town. He happened to be going that direction thankfully. It was only about a 15 minute car ride. He dropped us off and Nicolas gave him a few swiss francs as a thank you. Christmas markets here were amazing and the epitome of a winter wonderland.

More recently we had celebrated the holidays together. We had an early present opening with his family. Then I was lucky enough to be invited on their family trip to Paris, France. I met his grandparents who live there as well as a few of his cousins who live there. We were only there a few days but I was still able to see the quick main things. I definitely would like to go back in the future when it is warmer weather.

Finally, I spent new years meeting his bachelor friends and getting to know them. We had a nice dinner and drinks at his friends place. Then danced the night away (just dance) and karaoke. Now I have my first exams here next week which I am currently stressing over.

I know it’s been a while since my last post so there is a lot to recap. I went on a second hike (which was a mistake again). A group of us went to a nearby village to a hike called Creux du Van. Again the group split up with some racing through the hike while a small group of us took our time. Eventually we made it back safely but not before I had some serious knee pains. We ended up hiking a total of 9 miles. I’m still currently dealing with some hip and knee pains on and off.

I started classes last week which was kind stressful. But on the bright side I’ve made a lot of close friends here through university. On Friday the student group called Erasmus met up for a wine tasting and to relax which was nice. Afterwards a group of us walked to the festival the town was holding called Fête des Vendanges. Which is a huge festival where they close the whole main city down. They had multiple dj stages and every food vendor you could think of. I ended up going all three nights of the festival. 😴

This past Wednesday was the beginning of the university events here. Starting with an information session, city tour and then a kinda meet and greet for all the students to mingle. These student type of events were organized by the student organization called ESN here. I met some super cool people. Most of them were from Europe: Britain, Spain, Portugal, Germany and France. Then yesterday the whole group of us went on a guided hike. Which was definitely an experience 🫠. Starting off with around the beginning of the hike I tripped on my hiking laces and fell. So a little moment but I had some super sweet girls help me and we were off. I then chose to stay in the back of the group with one of the women guides who also had knee issues like mine. She was very sweet and had tons of patience. Then another blip in the hike was when me and the guide were far behind the group but still following. Our group that was ahead of us was purposely told directions wrong by a group of random men so they eventually got lost. (The randos also moved the physically walking marked sign too). Towards the end of the hike was nice. A very nice girl from Spain helped me with the rest of the hike. After the hike we all went back to our separate places and rested. Around 9pm I went to one of the guys apartment to pregame with a small group of us. They taught me a British card/drinking game. Afterwards, we joined the rest of the group at a local bar. To end of the night a small group of us went down the street to a club called 7. As well later today I will be joining the group for a bbq and wine tasting. As well the city is having a music event I will go to afterwards. I will officially be starting classes this coming Tuesday.

Today it was a rather slow but I managed to get out and explore a nearby small medieval town. Immediately after I got off the bus I saw my new home: Chateau de Valangin. Also apparently it was my lucky day because today was a heritage day so all castles were free for today. Here is some quick history I learned from the woman who was manning the front booth:

1150 the castle was built for the first time and was a house for soldiers

1315-1650ish it was a lords house

After that it was turned into a prison and much larger building being 5 stories and larger in length. It was burnt down around 1747 when a prisoner set fire to their cell and caused the whole place to burn down

1875 to now it has just been a museum

Yesterday I took the afternoon to explore my college campus here University of Neuchâtel. Which I will start going there next week, starting with university welcome events.

Today I took a boat ride around Lake Neuchâtel and explored all these quaint little restaurants nearby the docks

Today I took a train trip from Neuchâtel to Interlaken. It was definitely one for the books in many ways. The first being missing my first train by a couple minutes and having to repurchase my ticket. 🫠 I eventually made the next train to my connection etc.. The good part was the nausea medicine I got in town the other day totally worked. After I got off the last train in Interlaken I went and grabbed a bite to eat and had an awesome burger. Made friends with a table next to me who was a couple from Chicago, who advised me to try this tram up to a mountain overlook (called Harder Kulm) they just did. FYI it’s 1,300 or so feet up. I thought I would be more scared but it was a very stable ride. On the way up I made friends with two girls (Becky and Milly) around my age who were also taking solo trips by themselves. It was definitely fun to hangout with them and get to know them since Becky was from Ireland and Milly from London. After the excursion we went to grab a drink together to hang out.

On Thursday I got all settled into my apartment and had the chance to meet my male french roommate (no this will not be a rom com moment he has a girlfriend lol). Anyways I met him and gave him the statue of liberty figurine I got him during my layover in JFK. He was very surprised when I gave it to him and was laughing as it was a gag gift since the french gifted the U.S. the statue. To say this is a learning curve for me is very true as I have never lived on my own or lived with a roommate. I made friends with one our neighbors who is a Italian girl named Melania here for a masters program. Very nice person who even helped me furniture shop (news flash a nice pillow cost around $100 here 🤯) Even though it was a pricey shopping trip I got everything I needed. The one downside about our apartment is that there is no oven at all which is a bummer since I won’t be able to bake chocolate chip cookies when I miss home. I have about a week left until my events at the University of Neuchâtel start. The first being a welcome day on the 13th. I have yet to meet anyone else who will be going to my university which is kind of lonely at times. I have mostly been exploring on my own.

To recap this trip in one would sentence it would be definitely an adventure. The plane ride from JFK to Zurich was smooth. Except for the fact I booked a bulkhead seat which I didn’t know I did. Otherwise very comfortable. I received a complimentary dinner/dessert as well as a coffee and egg sandwich this morning. It was still smooth sailing after the landing when I was able to easily get my checked bag and go through customs. I found the place to buy my ticket with the help of the guy working there. I had around almost an hour till the train took off so I grabbed an iced coffee. This is where things took a turn…I got on the train which was thankfully a straight shot to Neuchâtel. But after all the motion of the train that coffee in my system was coming back with force. Eventually I finally got there and with the help of a nice woman I was able to find a taxi and get a ride to my hotel for the night.