ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND: Nov 27-30

Just got back from Switzerland and it was amaaazzinng! I think the best trip so far.

Last week I decided I want to go out every night that i have left in Madrid! We dont have much time left at all.. and I know that once real school starts back up again I'll wish I was here having fun so thats my new goal . and its worked out so far so yay-

Monday night: A friend that I went to Toledo with and is studying in Salamanca now came back to Madrid for a few nights before going off to Italy. So I met up with him and we did a pub crawl with his Hostel! it was actually kinda fun... I saw some places in Madrid i havent even seen before yet.. met a random kid who just graduated from UCSB and is touring europe... clubbing, came back super late but met some cool people and had lotsa fun! It was the beginning of my sleep-deprived but suppperrr awesome week

Tuesday night:
we all went to a bar in Chueca that's owned by the Bardem family. THe Bardem family is a super famous one in Madrid... Javier Bardem was on Greys Anatomy and Vicky Cristina Barcelona so thats how I know him... theyre just amazing and they own a bar in madrid! So we went there and hung out with some sangria.


Wednesday night:
We all met up at La Fabrica, a super fun bar near Pacifico metro stop. I went to Lis's place and we walked there, wasnt too far. Madrid is started to get suppperrr cold though- its supposed to snow this week! Ive always heard about La Fabrica but have never gone-- It has 7 tables or so thatyou stand at and each table has its own faucet for beer. You pay at the end and you can see how many liters youve drinken on this screen on the wall.. its set up like a competition kind of thing where you try to outdrink the tables around you. Anywho a TON of EAP kids and boston college kids met up there.. Jeff's parents were there... it was one of the best nights cause we were all together and just hanging out. Jeffs parents were hilarious and we played some random finger drinking game.... had fun with kids, it ended up being only 6 euros for a bunch cause we all split it equally. Were there for a few hours, then split up going to different clubs.. had mcdonalds for the first time here! I almost lasted the whole time without it but it just looked way too good. Came home around 4 AM and woke up at 7 to pack for switzerland!

Got to school, had Lengua til 2:30 but left around 2:15 with Mallory who was going to Paris for the weekend-- I was the only one that left my luggage at home cause I didnt feel like having it around all day, but then the flight was earlier than I thought it was at (it was at 5PM) so I had to literally run as much as I could to the house and airport. Got my stuff and met them all at the airport.. took Easyjet there.. they were intense about carryon baggage size but we found a way to beat the system by having someone watch our stuff on the side and only bringing one carry on bag to the check in (I usually bring my purse backpack and the tons of food Maru packs for me)

So the beginnong of SWITZERLAND! TO sum it up, a lot of stuff went wrong but in the end it all went better than it could have gone.

Easyjet got us in an hour and a half after our flight was supposed to arrive. We already only had an hour to catch the train to Zermatt... everyone had gotten special rail passes for the trip (I got a half fare pass that makes every Swiss train ticket half off cause im coming back later in december) sooo in the end we missed the last train for the night!

We considered staying in a hotel there, but we would have gotten to the slopes soo much later the next day... we could have taken a big taxi there but that would have cost 800 euros between all of us! Thought we were screwed so we all split up and asked the different car rental places how much it would cost to rent a car. Found a super great deal.. aorund 200 euros between all of us or so? And drove to zermatt at night! Luckily adam knew how to drive stick. Got lost a lil bit but we got there within 4 hours and now we're all completely obsessed with Hertz rental car.

Zermatt was soo beautiful- lots of snow... it was dark when we got there but we were super excited to see it in light the next day. THey have a rule that you cant drive normal cars in actual Zermatt, they only have these super quiet electric cars (that you never see until they almost run you over from behind) so its just a gorgeous quiet place. Parked our car in a payby day lot and took a taxi to our hostel.

Got to our Hostel that night around 2 and pretty much passed out. it was a 50/euros a night place and they provided free breakfast and super good dinner. it felt like we were the only ones there, plus Hessel, random Dutch guy that traveling around Europe- we ended up hanging out with him a bunch this weeknd.

Woke up around 7, had breakfast and put on the most clothes eevverr (Maru let me borrow her jacket and I haD dane's ski jacket too so the cold wasnt bad at all, especially when snowboarding cause you get so hot) and walked to the slopes to snowboard for the day! Went to a rental shop and got boots, a board, pants, gloves and goggles (about $140..) and ski lift tickets for 2 days (they had a 20 and under deal so wren and I's was just 119 but still! glad I dont snowboard too much, its expensive.. but super fun. made me miss the Uc's all cal trip to canada I went on last year!)

Got up there, we all started out together and split up a bit. Evan's brother came with us (hes working in London for the year) and he and Evan went off, Dane and Adam stayed on that first slope to help Wren, Lindsay had skis and did ski slopes and I went off and did my own slopes too.

I forgot how much work snowboarding is! I'm still so sore. the slopes were good, I definitely want to go in CA again when Im back if I can.. its just SUCH a workout! even my hands are sore ha but the sights were soo pretty- Swiss Alps were just awesome.. we saw the matterhorn.. it was good.

We set a time to meet up at 130 for lunch at this retaureant. I have a habit of making random friends in Europe I realized and i met this guy on a ski lift (called a... gandala I guess? you stand in it) thats from the US but worked in Germany for 5 years.. and isnow working in Italy and traveling around. Went our ways and when I got to the bottom of the hill, Lindsay was taking a break there and said that she was talking to this guy helping her, mentioned how we're from the uS and studying in Madrid, my random new friend said that I was coming down the slope and so she waited at the bottom and we met up and found the lunch meeting place together (im super bad at directions so glad we found each other!)

Got french fries and a soda... 10 francs! francs are kinda equal to the euro and dollar, a lil less though. Went with lindsay the rest of the day... didnt see Dane and Wren til 4:30 when the slopes closed.. we came back to the hostel and just wanted to sleep eat and shower! Got the showers done, all the girls wanted to sleep but the guys sucked and wouldnt let us, and we got ready and went to go have dinner downstairs. way good.

That night was super fun! We just went from bar to bar, kinda doing the european style of buying rounds and switching off on who buys the rounds. Hessel came out with us, he was friendly and bought some. Everything in Switzerland is a bunch more expensive- a beer was 5 or 6 euros... a drink 12. It added up but the closer I get the end the more I dont care cause I know I'll be saving up when Im back! So yeah just went around.. the besttt part was going to this one club, us girls did tequila and then had the BEST time ever on the dancefloor as they placed crazy old euro trash american music. We started off being the only ones on there and later it was packed. It was just SO fun dancing, Wren is hilaroius. We made a goal to have guys buy us drinks cause we were tired of spending ha and she got this guy too.. he was a lil intense but so funny.. cant wait to see pictures from that. Bubbles came out from the ceiling, everyone got into singing really loud... it was just hilarious.


Half the group decided to go back around 2.. but Adam Nate and Hessel were gonna stay and drink some more. So Lindsay and i had a lil dilemma but decided just to stay (the hostel was a short walk back but away from the fun scene) cause we werent too tired yet-- I'm anti-sleeping atall now.. its such a waste of time!

We went to the bar and got gin and tonic (12 each eek) and the craziest night ever started. The guys across the way kept looking over.. we were talking to Adam and being a lil bored but itwas okay... long story short, they tell us to come over to the other side of the bar, we werent sure what to do but decided to live it up, we did... throughout the night they bought us 50 francs worth of drinks (everytings more expensive there but still!). They were from Ireland and Scotland.. nice... it was just such a random night. After a while.. we realize (and its true, weve checked) theyre olympic atheletes for skiing! and one guy was their coach! Went to a lil club after.. tried to get away after that cause it was around 4 and we had to wake up early to snowboard the next day still. But it was fun! Dougie walked us back... and we were just excited to have a good story to tell everyone and make them wish they didnt go home to sleep haha.

Got back, thank god Wren woke up to let me in.. we all woke up around 7/8, the boys left early to hit the slopes. the weather and everything was SO much better, sunny clear.. it was way better than Friday. Us girls came a lil later (SO sore!) and had the best day-- did fun slopes... saw more of the mountain, took pics.. when up the matterhorn... met the guys for lunch... it was just chill and more fun to spend it together than all separate.

Came back, returned our gear and everything, and got our stuff from the hostel. The other bad news was that the hostel was completely booked on Saturday night- we had nowhere to go and everything was super expensive. at the last minute Dane found an apartment floor to rent-- PERFEct situation!

Stopped by the grocery store to pick up good (lil things of sandwich meat were like 30 bucks! Switzerland is kinda weird) and got ravioli cans, veggie cans and drinks and went to our apartment floor.
It was AMAZING. More than enough beds, a SAUNA and jacuzzi, completely kitched.. tv.. hang out room.. 2 showers.. really pretty view-- perfecT! and it was cheaper than the hostel I think.

We finally had our REAL thanksgiving dinner (I kept calling other dinners it but this was definitely the legit one). Ravioli.. we put together all the fruit/veggies our senoras gave and us girls made a fruit salad (we put the drinks and fruit salad outside to chill-- so much snow we had our own lil fridge out there), boys cooked ravioli (nmore than enough food), I donatd my bread and made toast (still need work on learning how to cook..) and we all sat down and had a nice filing meal.

Showered and got ready, made drinks and hung out the rest of the night just chilling. Decided not to go out cause we were all so tired but had fun in the nice apartment!
Didnt get the jacuzzi to work (it leaked) but the guys figured out how to work the SAUNA which was aaamaazzing. Just Nate Dane Wren and I used it , but it was SO awesome- wed cook for 15 minutes then roll around in the snow outside and come in ready to cook again. Did that for about 3 hours? Slept super super well afterwards

We all woke up at 7 on Sunday.. got the car, did some shopping and drove 4 hours back to the Geneva airport. I fell asleep on the car ride :( heard it was super pretty though and Im gonna steal ppl's pictures later!

Got to the airport with more than enough time.. said goodbye to lil Guze (Nate) and got on our flight back. and now im home!

Such a pretty, great weekend ! it was the last trip for a lot ofppl, but Im going ot Paris next weekend. Ah! good times. I'll put up pics when I steal everyone's memory cards tomorrow...

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