Switzerland, Day 3!

Our last day in Zermatt…so sad…

We all woke up early, Lucas extremely early though so he could go ski on the Italy side of the Matterhorn, no big deal right? He took my camera so I’ll post some of the pictures he took in afterwards.

Danny and I put on our skiing gear and headed down for breakfast.  

Every morning this was our breakfast. So much cheese and bread…yum!

We got on the bus that would take us to the same mountain base that we were at yesterday.  We broke off from Prince who was meeting Lucas to take photos of the Matterhorn. Danny and I, on the other hand, headed back up to the Wolli slopes.  

We were up there forever. I think we were there until forever. I got pretty good at it. I kept on falling though, but besides that falling I thought I was doing a good enough job for it being only my second day!  Danny improved also. He didn’t even run into a fence, I mean he ran into a wall of ice twice you know. He’s trying.  He also believed he skied backwards. I told him that no, he didn’t ski backwards; he slid down the backwards. He was in denial…

Anyway…

That little spec is me! Holla.  Look at me ski down that hill! I’m so proud of myself.

So I was falling down a lot. Even not whilst skiing I fell down. Kaboom.

I was on the magic carpet heading up the hill when Danny wanted a picture of me:

Right after this picture was taken, I was standing still. Not moving other than the fact that the magic carpet thing was bringing me up the hill. I turned back around and then all of a sudden I was on the ground. Literally, I have no idea how that happened. I was just on the snow having fallen off the magic carpet. Danny was flabbergasted.  I just watched him move past me on the magic carpet as I tried to get myself up from the snowy ground.  It was a sad sight to see. It should have been captured on video to be sent into Funniest Home Videos or to put up on video, so I could have been a Youtube sensation.

*Side note: I was falling and tripping so much during this trip. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I was headed up the stairs to our hotel room and I tripped and rammed my face into Danny’s calf. Thank goodness his calf was there or else I would have smashed my cheek bone into the marble stair and that would not have been good at all. I like my face…

Well, finally, Lucas and Prince met up with us on the Wolli slope.  We wanted to see these massive igloos and to try skiing on a different slope.  So that’s what we did. We headed back down to the bus where it took us to a different part of the mountain. Now, remember when I said that I was terrified of the chairlifts and gondolas? Well, it was time to face my fears. This is how I handled it.

And all Lucas could do was laugh…I was having a breakdown and all that boy could do was laugh. What a supportive boyfriend. Oh and then Danny had the tact to do this:

These boys really now how reassure someone that they aren’t going to die. 

All in all though, I survived the gondola ride. Only to find out that I had to ski down a hill which wasn’t a baby hill at all to get to another gondola to get to the igloos. 

Lord, I was a mess. 

This was me prepping myself for that hill. I was pretty much panicking the entire second half of the day, if you couldn’t tell.  Lucas had to ski in front of me because I was terrified that I was going to fly off the side of the mountain.  Well, him skiing in front of me didn’t really work out well seeing as I flew past him and managed to turn myself around. I somehow managed to make it down to the gondola.

Only to find out when I did get to the bottom that it was a chairlift!  The ones where your feet dangle.  Panic ensued. I wasn’t prepared for this. A gondola I could handle not a chairlift.  There was no turning back though.  Lucas talked me through the shuffling up to the chair and then sitting. Success. The bar came down and the chairlift took off. I screamed. SO loud. I’m surprised an avalanche didn’t occur because of that. I pulled myself together. It was fine. I just kept my chin up and avoided looking down. Of course, all of a sudden the chairlift stops. Done. I was done. I started bawling.  Of course, the chairlift would stop when I was on it because I wasn’t panicking enough already. Just my luck, right? Lucas was laughing, again. So supportive that boy is.  I was crying, Lucas was laughing, and what was Danny doing? His breathing exercises. He told Lucas to shut up and stop apologizing because he was doing his breathing exercises.  The chairlift finally started up again. Almost the worst experience of my life.  

BUT WE SURVIVED! We can breathe..normally. 

We made it up the mountain only to have to go back down it…ridiculous, I know.

So Lucas promises us that this is a beginner’s slope, an easy one…Yeah, right.

This is where Danny ran into the the ice wall…twice.

Skiing became a whole lot harder. It went from slick, icy snow, something I was familiar with to thick, fluffy snow with bigger hills. I wasn’t anywhere near my comfort zone. I was having a difficult time, but there was no turning back. I had to continue down the mountain. Even if it was taking it one step at a time. Literally, I had to side step down most of the hills because I was so scared. 

Danny got fed up at one point, took his skis off, and slid down the mountain saying: “Hey, look I’m skiing!” He was basically sliding down the hill with only his boots on. 

There was one moment when I was busy trying to make my way down the mountain when I see Danny at the bottom of a hill. He flew down the hill. He says he was skiing…he wasn’t. He went straight down the hill. I miss what happened at the end of the hill, but I was told by Lucas that Danny face planted. Danny went down the one hill, saw the next hill and deemed it too steep, and tried to stop. He was going to fast and wasn’t going to stop before the next hill, so Danny thought the best thing to do was to face plant. Apparently he skidded for a few seconds on his stomach and then laid still. Lucas thought he was dead. Then slowly Danny lifts his head up. He survived. 

Oh and by the way, here are those damn igloos…

Yeah, I went through all that hardship for those. We didn’t know how to get near them and by the time we go to this point we weren’t halfway down yet.  We had a lot more to go.  

So we start back down the mountain.  I fell down. A lot. I was sitting in the snow when Lucas decided to show us what we needed to do to help us improve our skiing. He was down the hill in front of me and I could not get up. Danny came over to me and I was like “who the fuck is going to help me up now?” I was not a happy camper.

Lucas made it back up the hill and helped me up. After that we were flying down the hill, in a good way.  I did manage to get stuck in snow that was 6 ft deep though. I literally disappeared. Lucas was confused. He stepped in the snow and he sunk into it. It was pretty hilarious.  

We finally made it down to the train station that would take us down the mountain. I was down by this time. Danny took one of my skis and I had the other. I plopped myself down on the train and was ready for a warm shower. 

I survived the day! Phew. 

We headed back to the hotel. I needed to change. I was frozen, literally. My sweater was caked with snow and ice. Oops. 

I needed a glass of wine after that.

Yep, a glass of wine was necessary or I would’ve lost my mind…

…too late. I’m already crazy. 

My food was delicious though. It was cheesy bread with ham, pineapple and a fried egg. 

Yummmmmmm! It was quite delicious.

We headed back to the hotel. I just wanted to pass out. Our flight was leaving in the afternoon and we had to be at the train station at like 11:00. I needed sleep! 

I will never forget this trip. I experienced something that I never though I would before. I mean, how many people can say that the first time they went skiing was in the Swiss Alps? 

It was a fantastic ‘part 1’ of spring break! Yeah, remember this is just the first half of spring break…there’s still more to come!

XOXO

First day of skiing in the Swiss Alps.

No big deal.

SWITZERLAND DAY TWO.

We started the day early, Lucas especially. He woke up early so that he could go skiing on the big, intense slopes.  He’s been skiing for over 12 years compared to Danny, Prince, and myself who’s never been skiing before. So while Lucas went off to ski the Matterhorn, Danny, Prince, and myself woke up and went off to find a place to rent ski pants because apparently it’s a little Podunk to ski in jeans. 

We successfully found pants:

The picture is blurry because Danny was working those ski pants like it was no ones business.  We are so smooth though. We managed to weasel a pair of gloves for each of us without paying. Holla!

Finished our errands in like 20 minutes, and now we just had to wait for Lucas to get back from his skiing adventures.  

Danny and I decided to take a swim in the hotel’s pools.  I havent swam in forever and it was awesome. The water was warm and relaxing.  

We are fabulous, aren’t we?

Oh my gosh, it was so funny to watch Danny swim.  He can’t. He was swimming towards me and basically sank. He was doggy paddling his little heart out and then sunk like a submarine. I could not stop laughing. 

After swimming we got ourselves ready for skiing the baby slopes. Woot.

Our booties look good. You know. 

Slash the shoes are so difficult to walk in. Like, they are incredibly awkward. Also, I am uncoordinated. I had to carry all this skiing equipment shit and walk with those boots on. It was a pain in the ass. 

Anyway, we got on this bus that took us to the bottom of the mountain. We then had to take this metro cart thing that took us to the slopes.  It was like a monorail that went through the middle of the mountain. 

It was a weird riding experience. I didn’t like it. I kept my eyes closed.  

We got to the top, but we still had more to go. We had to go on a gondola. Now, I am terrified of gondolas and chairlifts. I was getting anxious because I thought that the one itty bitty cord was going to snap. I know the chances of that happening were slim, but still. There was a possibility. A problem that I was going to have to face since I was skiing. I made it safely down the gondola to Wolly’s park.

Wolli was this goat/sheep mascot of the baby slopes. I’ll post some pictures in another slot to show how ridiculous it was skiing up there.

So the first day of skiing I only fell twice, and that was at the beginning when I first put my skis on. It was a lot like ice skating or rollerblading but with a lot longer shoe to work with.  First goal of the afternoon was to perfect the pizzas and fries. You wouldn’t think that would be too difficult, but it was.  We slid down this basically flat surface trying to point our skis in and spread them apart. As we got down there was this magic carpet thing that would take us back up the hill.

That’s Danny. He ran into a fence, twice…

After awhile I wanted to try a bigger hill so we moved over to this hill right next to were we were skiing. I just went for it.  I went straight down. I couldn’t stop. I thought  I was going to die; there was a fence at the bottom with a medium size drop off on the other side of it.  I was screaming ‘LUCAS!’ all the way down.  Pizzas and fries went out of my brain. I managed to make myself turn thought, finally, before I jumped off the mini cliff to my doom. It was terrifying. Lord. I literally thought I was going to die. After that little experience, we decided on another hill that was right next to that one which wasn’t as steep. I liked that one a lot more.

I got pretty good at skiing, I mean, as much as one could be at the end of 4 hours.   Danny, on the other hand, didn’t have the same amount of luck that I had.  He still hadn’t accomplished the pizza/fries concept.  He was determined though. And Prince….well, he gave up after 15 minutes of trying. Oh well, sometimes people aren’t made for something.  

ANYWAY, after skiing we headed back down the little train thing to the bottom of the mountain.  MY FEET WERE KILLING ME! I have a high tolerance to pain, but, man my feet were not happy campers. I was about to cry. And then this woman kept shoving her stroller into everyone on the metro thing because she just couldn’t wait to get on the next one. Biatch to the max.  

We had time to spare before we were going to our complimentary dinner from the hotel that night.  Lucas and I decided to walk around Zermatt and look at souvenirs.  

We found a chocolate store. Filled with different Swiss chocolates. Yum!

So much chocolate. We bought these corn flake balls covered with chocolate and then a sheet of chocolate with peanuts in it. YUM!

We headed back to the hotel, sneaked into Danny and Prince’s room and curled up in their beds. Danny didn’t wake up right away, it took him awhile. Prince, on the other hand, quickly woke up and just stared Lucas down. I thought Lucas was going to be punched in the face. It was too funny.  We then got ready for dinner and had time to spare so we played some more James Bond (the card game) until it was time to head down. 

Now, I have to admit that this was the most awkward dinner experience ever.  We had no clue how awkward this dinner was going to be. It was a Chinese Fondue, I think. Well, we had no idea what that was.  When we first arrived at the restaurant they brought us to this secluded part of the restaurant.

There was a glass partition separating us from the other guests…come on.

Then after we sat down there was a discrepancy between us and the waitress. She told us we had to pay for the meal, but we kept telling her that it was included in the hotel package we were paying for. That took about 15 minutes of trying to explain to her the situation. She refused to believe us. Lucas had to go to the front desk and tell them to tell her that we didn’t have to pay because the meal was included in our hotel fee. After that the lady got the hint and relaized her mistake…Her bad. 

So then they explained that there was a buffet and we could go get the stuff. Well, going back to the fact that we didn’t know what to do. We went up to the buffet and was just bewildered.  There was raw meat every where. We were just like do we eat the meat raw? What do we do? And old Asian people kept cutting in front of us. We looked around for some reassurance as to what we should do but all the other non-Asians were just as confused as we were…

Well, so we put some stuff on our plates and headed back to the ‘VIP’ section or the outcast section, you can decide what to call it.  Danny and I both picked up shrimp. Now, to us the shrimp looked a little weird. It wasn’t pink like it usually is. It was a grey/white color.  Danny tried the shrimp first. He kept saying it was slippery. So I then tried mine. And oh my Lord! It was so slimy. It was gross. I started complaining. Danny continued to eat two more. Complaining all the while.  

The waiter came back with this fondue pot:

It was filled with hot oil. AND NOW IT MAKES SENSE! The raw meat. You put the raw meat. Which means that Danny and I willingly ate raw shrimp. Sick. Like that’s not right, at all. So then we just cooked raw meat and ate it. Let’s just say I didn’t have a big appetite after eating that raw shrimp.

But that’s not all. We had dessert. Dessert was lemon sorbet in vodka. No joke, when we got the sorbet, there were two shots of vodka in the bowl.

And this was my reaction to it:

Two shots of vodka…

So after dinner, we wanted to go find a bar, but it being Sunday nothing was open.  We went back to the hotel. We were supposed to play James Bond, but as soon as I laid down on the bed I passed out. Done for the night.

All in all, it was a day of new experiences: skiing and Chinese fondue. A day no one could forget.

This had to be the most exhausting day I have ever had in my existence.  

So we landed in Geneva, Switzerland around 8:00/8:30 PM. See this wouldn’t be so bad if we had a hostel to stay in for the night. No, our asses thought that sleeping in the airport to save money would be the best decision.  We were in the Geneva airport  from 8:00 PM until 5:00 AM… 

9 HOURS IS TOO MUCH TIME IN AN AIRPORT!

Anyway, everything was closed. No one was around. We couldn’t get any information about the train we were supposed to take.  So we sat down at these tables in the train station part of the airport. It was freezing. We began to play card games.  Man, James Bond is a great card game to play and so is Presidents.  So we were playing cards for about 3 and 1/2 hours before these two police officers came up to us to tell us that we had to leave because of the train station being closed.  I started to panic. I didn’t want have to go outside and sleep in the freezing cold.  Luckily, the actual airport was still open and so we sat the remainder of our time there which was a lot warmer anyway. 

So we played card games instead of trying to get some sleep. We are so smart… We played James Bond until about 3:00 AM. Whenever I play that card game with Danny it becomes for aggressive.  Like, Danny and I go to town with that game.  Arguing and flying cards. It becomes too much fun. Anyway, I was freezing. I only brought with me my rain jacket and I had a sweater on underneath that. It was soooo cold. I could only think about how cold the next three days were gong to be.  But then, I was going skiing. What was I expecting?

Around 3:00 AM we started to at least get some sleep.  Not a very good hour and a half rest, but you work with what you got.  

So at 4:45 we made our way back down to the train station to figure out what platform we had to go to for our train.  Our 3 HOUR long train. We are just non stop traveling. We get on the train in Geneva and three hours later we end up ion Zermatt, Switzerland.  During that train ride, I was completely disoriented.  I was wearing gloves and I took them off. I fell asleep and woke up later to being really confused as to wear my gloves were.  I just stared at my hands wondering where my gloves were and how they weren’t on my hands anymore. I was sitting next to Lucas and asked him if I had gloves on and when he answered no I asked him if I took them off….. I couldn’t figure it out myself because my gloves were no longer on my hands and I had to have taken them off. I guess that is what happens when one is going off of a total of 4 hours of sleep in a span of 48 hours….wah wah.

So it’s understandable why were were so exhausted when we finally made it to Zermatt. We walked to our hotel, a Best Western. Woot! An actual hotel. I was excited for this because I was so used to my horrible bed at Regent’s and then the beds in the hostels. 

That’s the view from my hotel room. No joke. It’s gorgeous.  I ain’t hatin. 

And then Danny collapsed on to the bed.  He wasn’t there long though.  There was time to sleep. We had business to attend to. We had to find our way to this certain ski rental place. We ended getting lost which is a little ridiculous seeing as how Zermatt isn’t that big of a city and can walk from one end of the town to the other side in about 20 minutes. As we were walking around we made sure to get our Uh-Oh Oreo cookie picture. 

Adorable, right?

Anyway, we got our skis, poles, helmets and all that good stuff. Lucas and Danny were making fun of me hardcore.  Why? Because I couldn’t carry all my skiing equipment normally.  So I put my helmet on my head and attempted to carry my skis, poles, boots, and socks.  I looked like a fool.  Danny told me I looked mentally  handicapped walking with my ski helmet on.  I didn’t feel embarrassed because of the helmet though because kept on hitting my head with my skis.  I couldn’t stop laughing. I think Danny was more embarrassed then I was because of the helmet.  

After getting our skis we crashed.  We headed back to the hotel and before I did anything else I needed to shower. I hadn’t showered for almost 48 hours. GROSS! When I got out of the shower everyone was passed out.  I laid my head down on that massive pillow and fell asleep forever at least it felt like forever.

We finally started our day at around 7:00 PM.  We went down to the front desk to ask where should eat dinner. The woman recommended Walliskanne. We ordered cheese fondue for an appetizer.

YUM!

After this delicious dinner (it was expensive, even though the Swiss Franc is almost equivalent to the US dollar, things are not cheap there) we went to this bar called the T-Bar.

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The bar was, well, let’s say interesting… They played weird music; I want to say it was Swiss folk music mixed in with techno.  When we were just chillin there, we looked over and spotted this young man, in his mid to late 20s being fondled by 3 middle aged woman. These woman were all over him. One woman even grabbed his crotch while he was sitting down.  That’s how you make a move apparently in Switzerland.  Just grab life by the hand. 

After awhile we headed back to the hotel and got ready for bed. I needed all the rest if I was going to ski for the first time the next day!

I’m about to go skiing in the Swiss Alps.

I’ve never been skiing before…

Fingers crossed that I survive.