First Stop: Switzerland

If you want to go somewhere beautiful, go to the Engadine in Switzerland. This province is nestled right in the middle of the Swiss Alps and the views couldn't be any more spectacular.
We landed in the big city of Zurich, and had to travel through the mountains to get to our destination. We literally had to go through the mountains to get there so the bus we were on got onto a train that took us through the mountains. You would think it was amazing but on that warm summer day, the bus got unbearably hot.

Ardez Switzerland from the Mountains

Ardez, our final destination, was a small, old town in the middle of the mountains. The hotel was small enough that we had it almost all to ourselves. There weren't a lot of tourist attractions there, but who needed them? There were so many things to do there and sights to see. We took hikes through the mountains and saw whole villages!

Postcards are my kind of souvenirs, but I didn't get a lot of them in Switzerland. I

took plenty of pictures though!

This is my favorite picture of the mountians. We took a gondilla up one side of the mountain for lunch, potatoe noodles, a traditional Swiss meal, and then a hike to the other side to get down. On our hike, the view was breathtaking. I had never seen anything like it.

Scuol is another small town near Ardez that we toured. We walked through the city on a treasure hunt for knowledge. We had a language lesson in Romansch to prepare us for interaction with the locals, but mostly we communicated through broken English instead.

The architecure was really different. All of the houses were decorated and I loved the doors. Since Ardez and Scuol were old farming towns, the houses were originally built as part barns. They would have a basement level to keep the grass for the animals and in the cold of winter, they would drive the cattle in to stay warm. Most of them aren't used for that anymore though, but they still have awesome doors. 

Being People to People Student Ambassadors, we got to do things that regular tourists don't. The treasure hunt was only one thing. At the hotel, we had a dance where a traditional Swiss band performed just for us! There was a string bass, an acordian, and a clarinet (that's my instrument). The music was awesome and we got to play games to it.

I loved Switzerland and would love even more to go back!