Bettmeralp/Bettmersee

The weather was bad everywhere in Switzerland except in the Canton of Vallis. When I got up my host dad and I looked at a weather map and I asked him what I should do/where I should go. He told me about this village in the mountains where people can only get there by taking the gondola up. There is no public transportation, people have to walk and bike everywhere. There are electric cars people can reserve but other than that theres nothing. I thought "why not?” The only thing I knew about the place I was going to is that the weather was nice and they didn't have sources of transportation. In the morning I got on the train to Bettmeralp and just went. When I got out of the train station I took the gondola up with people holding grocery and shopping bags so it kind of gives you an idea about what the village is like. When I got up to the top it was like a ghost town, there were very few people. I saw a woman walking down the street and I asked her if there was a way I could go higher or if she could tell me a nice place to go and she directed me to the lake. In the whole village there was a coffeeshop and a Coop (a grocery store) the size of a Mac’s that was open. It was a steep 20 minute walk to the lake but when I got to the top I was so taken away by the view I forgot about how hot I was after trekking in my black long-sleeve shirt and jeans. I think I saw a total of 5 people all day but I’m not complaining because that just means it was more peaceful. I just walked around the lake, followed a little river further up the mountain and found a nice shady spot/the only shady spot on the mountain to have lunch. I am so thankful to be able to experience things like this. As I was sitting there 6,500 ft in the mountains looking at the view of the water and mountains, listening to the wind blow and the birds chirp and watching the fish swim I realized how unusual it is for people to just experience something like that. Here are some pictures of some of my views today but I just need to put it out there that PICTURES DO NOT DO JUSTICE !!!!!

Inside my train 

Lake Bettmer

Bettmeralp ski resort 

This one is broken but these are the only kinds of vehicles that are allowed in the mountain village.

so many roads for the amount of vehicles they have

the gondola to the left is the one people take to go to and from the village 

view from in the gondola 

first view as I stepped out of the gondola

Creux du Van

Creux du Van is the Grand Canyon on Switzerland. Rotex organized spring events and every exchange student was allowed to pick one. There was an option between visiting a chocolate and cheese factory (which I did with my second host family), some political voting thing and this hike. I am not one to turn down a hike. In the morning I met with other Fribourg exchange students in the train station so we could all go together and it was quite the interesting morning. We got on the train and then someone said we were on the wrong train so we got off and as soon as we stepped out of the train the doors closed and it left... Turns out that was our train. We then had one minute to run to another train but it was on the wrong rail and we ended up missing that one. After that we took a train that was running late making us almost miss our bus to get to another train station to take us to where we needed to be. We were finally on the train and all was good until we missed our stop... We were supposed to press a button to request the stop but non of us knew this :/ we had to walk 45 minutes to the train station because we didn't have a train back for 1 hour. We finally met with the group and everything was fine except for the fact we were 2 hours late :) The weather was not too hot and a little cloudy it was beautiful hiking weather, I swear if it were to have been one degree hotter I probably would've collapsed. Once we got to the top we had some lunch took some pictures and enjoyed the beautiful view! One the way down my friends and I played with some cows!! 

Exchange friends are friends forever ft. Alex and Dom from Australia 

top of Creux du Van 

Sam (California), me, Jade (Wisconsin)

fun fact: all of the Canadians exchange students have Blunstones but nobody from Tasmania or Australia do

Cow (Switzerland), Indea (Canada), Simon (Chile) 

Cow and Simon <3

Domodossola, Italy

My friend from Australia, Georgia and I decided to go to Italy on one of our days off. For me to get to Domodossola, Italy from Fribourg, Switzerland (my home Canton) takes me about 3 hours and for Georgia it takes about 35 minutes from Brig, her Canton. I have been to this place before but it was just for lunch (now that I say that out loud I realize its such an unusual thing to say and I am so lucky to just be able to whip down to Italy for some za (pizza)). Its a fairly small place with not too much to do but Georgia and I had a good time anyways. We just walked around, saw some nice architecture and ate some Gelato before & after our 3 course lunch that was only 10 euros. On the way back to bring we were in one of the older trains with the windows that go down and i was so excited I was as happy as a dog with its head out the window. It was definitely different compared to the high class trains I’m used to riding in Switzerland. We went back to Brig and she showed me around because I have never really been there long enough to tour the city. 

view from the front doors of the train station in Italy 

round one

wondering how the food keeps coming and its only 10 euros 

the market in Domodossola

Georgia from Australia 

Exploring Brig, Switzerland 

Happy Hannah in a very cute old train with windows that open 

Dad if you are reading this I know you will understand how happy I am at this moment