Montreux

This weekend was packed full of adventures. Saturday some friends and I took the train about an hour out to Montreux. It is a smaller town on the east end of Lake Geneva and is a part of the "Swiss Riviera". It is a big Swiss tourist destination which I can easily understand. So far, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. (Yes Mom and Dad, it trumps Maui..) 

No matter how many pictures I took I couldn't do it justice.

When we arrived we were surprised to find out it was "Freddie Mercury Memorial Day" in Montreux. I still am not sure why the city is so in love with the lead singer of Queen, but it was a fun surprise. There was a festival by the water with a band and Freddie impersonators.

Freddie Mercury Memorial

Stage for the band....don't need a lot of set design with a background like that.

After walking around for awhile we decided to take a boat to the Chateau de Chillon--a beautiful and well preserved castle dating back to the 12th century!

The boat ride was well worth the extra money. We accidentally missed our stop so we had to ride longer than anticipated, but that was ok with me!

View of the chateau from the boat, if you are trying to get a sense of how big it is, it has over 100 rooms. C'est tres grand.

They have done an amazing job restoring the inside. We spent almost two hours walking through the castle and most of the time I could easily picture people living and working there in the 12th century.

View from the top of the watch tower. Not a pleasant time getting up there, but well worth it. (Dad--the whole time climbing up the tiny little stairs I thought to myself how much you would be hating it too).

We decided to walk back to the train station along the lake. Needless to say it took us awhile to get back since we were gawking at the scenery and constantly stopping to take pictures. Easy to say Montreux goes on my growing list of "reasons to be jealous of the Swiss".

Today, Sunday, my Swiss family took me to what they call an adventure park. It was like a big obstacle course in the mountains with zip lines. It was pretty funny when they asked me to go. I was trying to translate and I thought they were asking me if I like to climb trees. At first I was pretty worried thinking, "Oh no, what are they going to ask me to do...?"

At times it was very scary since I am scared of heights, but it was a huge rush and definitely a chance of a lifetime. I started laughing  at one point because a year ago I definitely did not think I would find myself zip lining in the Swiss mountains.

When we were finished, and I thanked God many times that I was back safe o the ground, we went to my Swiss grandmas house about 10 min away in a small village called St. Triphon. It, of course, was almost obnoxiously beautiful.

St. Triphone

We had lunch outside with grandma and cousins--sandwiches, pizza, and wine. Even though we had the usual language barrier, I thanked the grandmother many times for having me at her home. The best part of the day was being able to sit back and watch the family talk and interact, realizing that it was very much like my family.

On Tuesday our professor is taking us all out to dinner in Nyon to get feedback about our homestays. Thursday we don't have class in the morning because it is a holiday in Geneva. I am really excited for Friday because we have a briefing by a well known medical anthropologist who works and the Geneva University Hospital. Her talk is going to be about the importance culture plays in medicine.

Also my friend Cassidy, who is currently studying in Freiburg, Germany check out her blog ckgermany.blogspot.com, are trying to plan a weekend trip for October. Let me know if you have any suggestions on where we should go.

A bientot!