So, last weekend, I hiked about 14 miles to the peak of a mountain in the Swiss Alps along with Hannah, Natalie, many of our classmates, and our directors leading the way. We were warned that it would take all day and that by the time we got towards the top of the peak, we would need to use all fours. But, that didn’t scare us away. I mean hiking the Swiss Alps is not an opportunity that comes knocking on my door all the time. So, I had to go! Needless to say, I was so excited.  And I was not let down. The view surrounding us from the beginning of the hike until we reached the tippy top of the peak was absolutely breathtaking. And that isn’t an exaggeration in even the slightest bit.

^^Our directors and their six year old daughter leading the way!

^^Sascha was pretty excited to make it over half-way to the peak, where we stop for lunch! This is where she stopped last year…the question is will she make it to the peak this year?

 ^^Not a bad lunch-spot view, huh??

^^This right here doesn’t look like much. A fresh baguette, cheese, and turkey. No condiments. But, I kid you not when I say that this was one of the most delicious sandwiches I have ever had. The bread in Switzerland and of course the cheese is literally to die for.

^^With full tummies and therefore a burst of energy, we were ready to climb the last chunk of the hike to the tippy top of the peak!

^^Up we go!

^^You can begin to see here how steep it is! This picture was taken right before I had to use both hands to help me get up the mountain, so I couldn’t take any more pictures until…

^^…I made it to the top!!!

^^Our directors, Todd and Sarah. We would all be so lost without them!

^^She made it to the top this year!! Don’t let the fact that a six year old making it to the top make you think that this was an easy climb. It wasn’t. All of us were so proud of her and honestly amazed she could do it! She is one tough cookie!

^^Girls will be girls…

^^…and boys will be boys!

^^And down we go. Can you tell how steep it is now??

^^And when we all reached the bottom, safe and sound, 14 miles later, Sarah and Todd treated all of us to some hot chocolate. Aren’t they the best?!

Oh and one last thing, I took a total of 298 pictures on this hike!! I can’t tell you how tough it was to narrow them down to 25. But, I think that just goes to show how beautiful it really was. I wish everyone in the world could experience this.

When I first arrived in Switzerland, it was pretty hot, which is not at all what I was expecting. But, it has started to finally cool down and that makes me all giddy inside because I just adore cold weather.

On the first day that it started to feel cold outside, we went on a class trip to walk through the vineyards as an entire group. The vineyards were located right on the coast of Lake Geneva and the view was just the way you would picture Switzerland to be. We strolled through the vineyards for a couple hours. It took us a couple hours because everyone would stop every five minutes to take lots of pictures. We just had to capture the view! (Which I did…I took so many pictures I had to start deleting pictures off of my memory card to make room!) But you know what? If I would want to be stuck somewhere for quite a while, this vineyard sounds like a pretty perfect place.

And it gets even better! Once we finished walking through the vineyard, we all jumped on a train to a cute little town called Vevey.

It was also exactly how you would picture the streets of Switzerland to look like. Narrow winding stone streets with the cutest boutiques that each had their own completely unique style.

While we were exploring this little town, we stumbled across our friends sitting down at a little café eating gelato. We didn’t even think twice about stopping too. Gelato is always a must!  And I’m so glad we decided to join them because this was the best gelato I have had so far. (Cinnamon gelato is officially my new favorite flavor!) I dream about it at night.

After exploring Vevey for a few hours, we all met back up down at the dock on Lake Geneva to take one of the cutest boats back to our city of Lausanne.

It was one of the best days we have had so far! (But, I have a feeling I’m going to keep saying that a lot more times about days to come) I just love, love, love it here!