The most exciting of these opportunities is the backpacking/hosteling/eurail riding experience. It’s one giant cliché, it’s what all the college kids are doing these days, or at least, it seems like it. Honestly, I never expected to love that style of travel. It all sounded way too spontaneous to me. However, I think this weekend was when it finally started to sink in that this freedom to go anywhere is pretty incredible. The fact that we can decide on Tuesday that we want to go to Switzerland on Friday and actually make it happen is not something to take for granted.
So that’s what we did. It conveniently takes only 3 hours to reach Zürich, and while it’s somewhere that was never on my travel bucket list, I’m so glad I went. We spent only a day and a half there, but since we decided to spend our time in a more relaxing way just enjoying the culture, we didn’t feel compelled to spend longer going to every typical tourist attraction in town. And to my surprise, the culture of Switzerland is really fascinating. The country has four official languages, and almost one quarter of its inhabitants are not natives. It’s like a playground for the rich and famous, but still has a rich mixture of cultures. Although Zürich is in the German speaking part of the country, I felt right at home when I walked into cafés with menus half in German and half in French.
We began our exploration of the city with a walk down the most famous shopping street. It’s lined with the kinds of stores I would feel awkward just walking into, but at the end of the road is the beautiful Lake Zürich. Switzerland, not Illinois.
The rest of our time was spent at a leisurely pace, looking for more beautiful views, strolling along the pedestrian streets of the old town, enjoying authentic Swiss meals in the outdoor sections of cafés, having wine and chocolate on the rooftop terrace of our hostel, and simply finding as many of those little moments of perfection that we could. It’s those moments of perfection that make this entire experience what it is. It’s those moments that make all the challenges worth it. It’s those moments that make me wonder why all the college students in America aren’t tripping over each other on their way to sign up for study abroad.
It’s been said a million times before, but studying abroad changes you. It not only makes you more independent, adventurous person, but also a more interesting person. You get out there and see all you can see, and when you get back, the world seems both bigger and smaller at the same time. Now I realize that America is such a small part of what it has to offer, but at the same time, I feel like it is a little more within reach than I used to think. It’s mine to explore, to experience, and it could be yours too.
