Nostalgic and I haven’t even left yet

{Written on May 7th, 2017} It’s interesting how the end of something changes the way you experience it. I’m on yet another day trip in Switzerland but as I look out of the window of the train I’m already nostalgic over the country I haven’t even left yet. But even looking at my present as if it’s already past, I’m perhaps appreciating it and seeing it more clearly now than ever before. So a few shoutouts for what Swiss-land is (to me). Switzerland is ROCK. It’s mountains, hills, lush, lakes, languages, winding paths and skinny yet tall, tall trees. It is cheese, like serious dairy pride. It is open drinks on the streets yet enough social pressure and a 10 o’clock alcohol curfew so no one gets too rowdy. Switzerland is a come back of a country, with a history of peasantry to its current high-price status. It is no complaints, demanding eye contact and proper hellos, sustainability, and timelessness. It’s formality comparable to raclette, rigid at first and tinged with salt, but allow the flame of personality to burn for a minute and the rigidity slides away layer by layer. Then, you eat the evidence that that formality even existed on top of mound of boiled potatoes, the trace of past peasantry (that analogy was a little bit of a stretch…). Switzerland is where everyone can do some kind of snow sliding sport. Switzerland is…a little bit of everything.

I came here with zero expectations and zero real understanding of what Switzerland is. It was “no mans land” to me. It was the country that, in years prior I’d mixed up with Sweden, probably more than once (I know I’m not the only one that has done this!). I will never mix Switzerland up with anything again, even when drawing comparisons with Oregon. This country is fondue, a total melting pot, yet also distinctly its own. And I love it 🙂