Time is flying now

Four...that's right, I have FOUR weeks left in Switzerland.  I can't believe it.  It is so unreal.  It's insane.  I remember last year this time I had just been hired by Nina and I was so excited.  I was filling out my papers for my work visa and here I am one year later with only 4 weeks left of my adventure, and I am not sure how to feel about it.  Should I feel excited, sad, confused, happy, angry, all my emotions are everywhere right now.  I have plans every weekend and I'm not stopping anytime soon.  I am just taking it one day at a time. 

Since my last post, I have returned from Locarno but not before getting food poisoning.  Let me tell you, Sunday at 6:30am, I thought I was dying.  I think it was the pizza I ate the day before but I'm not sure because other people had the pizza too and didn't get sick. The train ride home was the LONGEST and WORST ride of my life.  I just wanted to get home, it was over 5hrs long and I was tired and cranky.  When I arrived in Zurich to catch my connection I ended up getting on the fast train that only had like four stops then Geneva and I got to sit in first class, which was awesome. I was sick until Monday night and Tuesday I felt a lot better. 

Wednesday was my day off so I took the opportunity and finally went to Zermatt.  LiNK is going in October and I will be gone by the time they go.  It's a place in Switzerland that I have wanted to visit since I arrived.  I was originally going to go with LiNK but I changed my leaving date and that conflicted with Zermatt.  My options were; leave earlier and use my vacation time to leave 2 weeks sooner, or go to Zermatt.  Well that decision was really easy to make, leave earlier of course.  So with that choice Zermatt with LiNK wasn't going to happen and since everyone here has or will be going with LiNK I couldn't find anyone to go with so I took Wednesday to go, plus everyother time I go it's rainy in Zermatt and there is no point in going if it is going to rain. 

Zermatt is a beautiful village.  There are no cars, the only thing you will see are electric taxis that take tourists to and from the hotel to the train station.  It's a lot of fun walking in the middle of the street and not risk being run over. 

I could live there but don't think I would want too.  It is way too touristy for my liking.  There are mountians everywhere.  Left, right, up, down (if you're on a mountain), they are everywhere.  Beautiful and snow covered.  One thing that really threw me off is people can still ski on the mountain.  I didn't know that it was safe to ski in the middle of the summer.  Mind you at the top of the mountain it is -1 degrees (or 28 degrees for us North Americans).  I guess you learn something new everyday.

While walking aorund, I caught my first glimpse of the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is the tenth highest mountain in Switzerland, and one of 48 Swiss peaks above 4,000 meters in height.  Matterhorn, the German name, is from the words Matte meaning “meadow” and horn meaning “peak.”  Over 500 people have died climbing the Matterhorn since 1865’s tragic accident, many on the descent. Deaths average now about 12 annually. Deaths are due to falls, inexperience, underestimating the mountain, bad weather, and falling rocks. Many of the mountain’s victims, including three from the first ascent disaster, are buried in Zermatt’s downtown cemetery. (http://climbing.about.com/od/mountainclimbing/a/MatterhornFacts.htm).  So many people from all over the world come to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn and I

was one of those people.  It is really neat to walk through Zermatt and see such a beautiful creation. 

I continued my journey through Zermatt and headed up the Glacier Paradise.  It is 3,883m high.  It felt so weird to be up that high and my body could definitely tell it was up high.  If I moved too fast or spun around to quick my body felt all weird.  There were signs everywhere that said this:

So I listened and moved slowly, but one can only move so slow.

The views from the top of the mountain were amazing.  I have never seen anything it before, well Interlaken was amazing, but this was SO pretty and breathtaking.  I couldn't get over it.  I could have stayed there all day just looking out and taking it all in.  I know that when I go home I won't the beauty that is there, but instead I will see ugly abandoned buildings and smog. 

 

It was so cold up top, like I said earlier -1 degrees.  I came prepared with my hat, scarf and gloves.  I actually didn't wear them when I was outside, but when I went into the Glacier I ended up putting them in since it was a lot colder.  Inside the glacier it was super neat.  I have never been in something like this so it was neat to be surrounded by nothing but ice.  There were some natural crevices and sculpted ice.  I think my favorite was the natural crevices since they were untouched. 

 

By the time I was finished in the glacier I headed back up to land. I got some lunch because I was STARVING and then headed back out to take in some more of the amazing views.

 

I had an awesome time in Zermatt and I am really glad that I went.  It was one of the places I HAD to go to while I was here and it was getting close to leaving so I figured now was the best time.  The weather was perfect and I couldn't have asked for better. 
 
On another note, a few weeks ago my friend Stephanie posted on her facebook that when she was at a train station and was looking in the vending machine and happened to see a pregnancy test and condoms right beside the chips and chocolate.  She forgot to get a picture to show proof.  When I was on my way to Zermatt, I had to catch a connection train in Visp, and was really wanting some juice, so I went to the vending machine and for myself a capri sun and remembered what Steph said she saw so I stood there, looked through every row to find the test and condoms and to my surprise for 15CHF you can get a test and for 5CHF you can get condoms.  Remember people SAFE SEX
 

 

10 days until London
28 days until Glasgow
34 days until Belle River