My Adventures in the Land of Cheese and Chocolates.

Being told that I had been chosen to go on a youth exchange to Switzerland was almost unbelievable. The thought of being able to experience different cultures and celebrate a white Christmas was almost surreal! 

The 14-hour flight to Zurich was more gruelling than I had expected. Being a virgin traveller, I had a hard time falling asleep during the flight and was fumbling about trying to get my hand luggage back into my bag during our stopover in Muscat, as my bag went through a random yet thorough security check. But after 14 hours, we landed safely in Zurich airport at 6:20am on 7 December 2013. 

Before I left, many friends and relatives had told me that it would be cold, but nothing could have prepared me for how cold it really was. Experiencing below 0 temperatures for the first time was like being yanked out of a warm bath and being thrown into bone chilling icy cold water! But the excitement of being is such a beautiful country overcame the feeling of being frozen alive. 

The first stop I made was Zurich. It is a beautiful city, a perfect combination of modern and traditional architecture synchronizing in perfect harmony. A walk around the city was an eye-opener as I was able to absorb the beauty of the city and because it was still early, the streets were quite empty. 

Sunrise over the pier. 

Empty streets of Zurich.

For the first week, I stayed with my host family in Ennetbürgen- a small town located in the canton of Nidwalden. Located in the middle of the country, it is one of the four cantons connected to Lake Lucern. 

During my stay there, the family prepared many activities such as a visit to Lucern, watching a play entitled "The Good Person of Sechuan", visiting Engelberg and Mount Titlis and visiting glass makers in Hergiswil. 

Lake Lucern

The Chapel Bridge & Water Tower, Lucern

Neighbourhood of Ennetburgen

Group shot on Mount Titlis

After spending an eventful week in Ennetbürgen, I moved up the mountains into the lovely town of Pontresina. 

Before travelling up into the mountains, I managed to get a quick tour of Chur- one of the oldest cities in Switzerland. 

It was nice to be up in the mountains as the locals took full advantage of the nice weather and everyone was enjoying winter activities. The most memorable moment foe me was when we went ice skating on the frozen lake. It was really exciting because I had never skated on a frozen lake before and skating on one seems like something out of a fairy tale. According to the locals, the lake only completely freezes over for it to be safe to skate on every 6-8 years.

Other than that, I was also fortunate enough to learn the fundamentals of skiing and snowboarding. It really is harder than it looks and watching kids as young as 3 years old ski without difficulty was really amazing. Almost everyone from there learns how to ski and snowboard at a young age as winter sport is as big an event as the Olympics and they are very proud of their athletes. 

I really enjoyed my time up in the mountains. During my stay there, I learnt how to make traditional Christmas cookies and also had the amazing opportunity to ride down the mountain aboard the Glacier Express. It provided me with the opportunity to enjoy the scenic route down the mountain. 

After a week in the mountains, I left with a heavy heart back down to a small farming town in Turbenthal. There, I really experienced the quietness of country living as most families there lead a simple life, living off the fruits of their labour. 

Although it was quite boring at times as there wasn't really much to do around there, but the quietness did give time to really appreciate the calm and beauty that nature brings. A place unclaimed by the works of modernisation.  

Since Turbenthal is quite close to Zurich, I managed to visit the Zurich Zoo. It was very different to the zoo back in Malaysia, it was more like a park rather than a zoo. They also had a Tropical enclosure where they exhibited flora and fauna found in Madagascar. My host family teased me about it saying that I would be happy to stay in the tropical enclosure where it was warmer and the air was more humid as I often complained about dry, cracked lips and minor nose bleeds due to air being so dry. 

I also had the opportunity to venture up Rigi a.k.a Queen of the Mountain, visit Stein Am Rhein and Rheinfalls. It was truly magnificent and looked somewhat like a miniature version of Niagara Falls. They explained to me that it was the largest plain waterfall in Europe and in the summer, it was possible to take a boat to the middle of the waterfall, to a small lookout point.

When visiting a country, visiting the capital is a must! While is Bern, they explained to me the Swiss political structure and showed me the parliament building and the bank of Switzerland. We also climbed to the top of Bern Minster, Switzerland’s largest ecclesiastical building. Whilst in Bern, my host decided that we try Indian food as we were jokingly saying that as a Malaysian, I would be craving for some spice as European food would have tasted pretty bland to me.

The Swiss Alps are famous worldwide and the locals are really eager to show outsiders just how majestic they are. During my time there, they took me up to Schiltorn, which was made famous when it was used as a film sight for the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. We ate lunch at the revolving Piz Gloria restaurant and then made a tour around the James Bond Museum and also spent some time on the observation deck where we managed to see many peaks of the Swiss Alps before heading home.

I really enjoyed my time in Switzerland an even though the time there was short, I managed to learn quite a lot of their culture and was more than happy to share mine with them.

Country life in Turbenthal

Up on the Rigi

Aerial view of Bern 

Schithorn