Week 12: Switzerland Has My Heart

I can’t find another word to explain this week but “beautiful.” For the most part, it was a peaceful week for me. I got the chance to take a little more care of myself this week than normal. At the beginning of the week, I had two of the longest runs that I’ve had since I’ve been here. There must’ve been something in the air because it was just one day after the other. I’m excited to see what I accomplish this upcoming week! I also decided that at least once a week, I’m going to take myself on a little date and cross something off my Barcelona bucket list. I actually started doing that this past week with….

The Picasso Museum! 

On Wednesday, when I don’t have any classes and my roommates do, I decided to take myself on a date to the Picasso Museum. I won’t lie, I’m not one to go to a museum or even a sit-down restaurant alone. I like to have company at almost all times. But I took myself to the museum and even romanticized it a little bit. I decided to immerse myself and give the museum my full attention by doing the audio tour. 

I learned a lot about Picasso and Miró through this experience. Probably too much to relay here. But, I’d love to share some of my favorite pieces of art. 

First, there was this amazing curtain painted by Picasso. It was made for the Mercure ballet in Paris which I found super interesting. The guitar and scoring on the floor are motifs of his work that I saw in other pieces of his as well. The surrealist movement also began during the time that Picasso made this curtain and the surrealists described him as the “eternal personification of youth.”

At the museum, I also chose a painting that reminded me of each person in my family. It started with my mom. I saw a beautiful painting with curly hair and right away thought of my mom. Later, I saw another painting of a person playing the piano with a dog on the floor. I immediately thought of my brother and dog because my brother always plays the piano and the dog in the painting is similar in shape and size to my dog (in a Picasso way). Then I saw a painting that reminded me of something my dad would see and say it looked like me. It’s a ballerina so not exactly me, but like I said, I think it’s something my dad would say looked like me. That was when I realized I was finding a painting for everyone in my family. So, the one that reminds me of my dad doesn’t look exactly like him and isn’t holding a guitar (which is what I was hoping to find for him), but it still somewhat resembles him. Dad, if you’re seeing this don’t be offended because the man in the painting is bald. If it makes you feel any better, my head is basically on backward and Sam doesn’t have any facial features.

Switzerland Activities

I was off to Geneva for the weekend! Switzerland is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life. I am so lucky that my friend’s parents live there and I was able to stay at their amazing home in Geneva. They also were the best guides and showed us all of the best parts of Geneva and the Alps, the best foods, and they knew all of the facts. I truly couldn’t have had a better weekend in Geneva from the views to the tours to the food to the cozy home (and the company of my friend’s dog).

On my first day there we walked around Geneva and saw the Russian Church which has real gold on the top, and the St. Peter’s Cathedral. Both were so stunning. Then we headed over to the lake where Athina and I were plotting to jump in! Dani and Juliette didn’t want to participate and I can’t blame them but I thought, hey it’s an experience. After we jumped in, we wanted to go to the sauna that is close by. Once we went to check out how to get into the sauna we discovered that there was this whole retreat sort of activity we could do. So we decided to do it. The way that it worked was you would sit in a hammam for 10-15 minutes and use black soap and a glove to scrub your skin, then go into a sauna for another 5-10 minutes, then plunge into the lake. After we did the whole cycle once, our friends decided to join us so we did it again. It was super nice and exactly the type of thing that I was hoping to do when coming to Geneva. We didn’t take our phones with us for this so I don’t have any pictures to share, but that’s probably for the best given most people chose to do this without bathing suits.

The next day, we headed up to the Swiss Alps and landed in a town called Gruyères. Ever heard of Gruyère cheese? If you have, you’ll be pleased to find out that we did a Gruyère cheese tour! The tour was really interesting because we had an audio guide told by the voice of the cow. We were able to taste the cheese at different ages and see how they made the cheese as well. We were there at the perfect time too because we saw them transfer the cheese from the mixing step to the pressing step. 

After the cheese tour, we went over to the Gruyère Castle and did another audio tour. The castle was built between 1270 and 1282 and, as you can probably imagine from its age, has gone through a lot of wars and has a lot of history to it. It was very pretty though because it’s perched perfectly on top of a hill with amazing views. The medieval town of Gruyére also was very pretty.

To cap off our touristy day, we did a chocolate tour with Cailler. This tour was very interesting because when we started it felt like Disneyland. The whole beginning of the tour told the story of how chocolate became a food starting with the Gods to Marie Antoinette. Then we saw them make the chocolate, did some smell tests, learned about what goes into Cailler that makes it so special, and ended with tasting them all of course! I probably took too much advantage of the free chocolates, but who can blame me? 

Switzerland Foods

The most memorable meal that we had was the fondue dinner on our first night at Les Armures. I’ve been told this is one of the best restaurants for fondue and on the wall there were many pictures and letters from famous people that have visited. When we walked into the restaurant the smell of cheese filled the room. I didn’t know if I was going to love fondue but it was absolutely delicious. We were given bread and potatoes to dip into the melted cheese and I couldn’t get enough. Fondue is something that I had never experienced before and I’m glad that I got to experience it where it’s the best! 

While we were in Gruyéres, we had another traditional lunch. I got the macaroni. It was a much creamier and lighter form of macaroni and cheese than I’m used to and it had ham and potatoes in it which was yummy. My friends got the soup that also looked delicious and Dani got a dish where you’re given a bunch of raw meats and you cook them on a hot plate. All of these foods are considered mountain foods and it made me want to ski.

Overall, I had the most wonderful time in Switzerland. From the beauty alone, this place is one of, if not my top, favorite places that I’ve visited and I recommend everyone go there at some point in their lifetime!