The Greeness of It All

During my Europe trip, the location that I most desired to see were Paris and Venice but I discovered a new place in the world that is comparable to that two cities: I am speaking of the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps is located in Alpine region of Switzerland and it spreads across France, Italy, Austria, and Liechtenstein.  I was in a treat and I did not even aware of it until I got there.  As we drove to our camp destination, we passed by gorgeous blue-green lakes that I have never seen in California. The water was so clear that I would never have thought it ever existed; the tour guide stated the glacier creates the blue-green color and at some point on our drive, I saw two men sitting in a dinghy in the middle of the vast blue-green body of water; it looked like something one only sees in pictures but it was real and it was right in front of me.


My group and I stayed in a small town called Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland which consists of small businesses and a train station nearby.  We spent the night in a campsite where a stream of water flows across the site and the current is so fast and strong that one would definitely not survive if he decides to give it a swim.  All around me were mountains of green grass and plants and on the hilly area, there were houses and even small cottages that we don't see in America; my tour friends say people do live in those cottages but I had to question the fact, it looked like there was no possible electricity line that connected to it and the cottages looked so worn out and fragile that I don't know if anyone would ever want to live there. 

On the second day, my tour group and I took the train up to the Jungfraujoch mountain; I have never heard of this mountain before and I had low expectation of it, I mean I have seen so many mountain in California that I had little hope for it, mountains are just mountains right?  The train took two hours to get up to the summit and though I hate long commute in any form, I enjoyed the sceneries and the fellowship with my tour friends as we journeyed our way up there.  We stopped by a few view points during the train ride, and that was when it hit me that this Jungfraujoch was definitely no ordinary mountain. At each view point and as we got higher, I could see clouds and white mountains at all side. When we got to the top, that's when I realized that this Jungfraujoch is beyond my imagination. We were 11,000 ft above sea level and everywhere I looked mountains of white snow were transparent and white clouds covered on all side that we looked on.

Doing what most tourists are known to do, we took pictures and then headed to the play area where visitors could snowboard and get involved in other snow activities.  I decided to sit back and soaked in the beautiful white mountains surrounding me and visited the Ice Museum.  There, I walked in an alley that covers with ice, yes real ice. It was cold up in the mountain but the temperature dropped at about 10 degree Farenheit as I entered the museum and as I walked farther in, my breathe became visible in a form of midst.  There were sculptures that were made and shaped out of ice; in one sculpture, there was a group of bears and pinguins walking.  I have never seen anything in my life so rather than taking pictures like I generally do, I decided to absorb my surrounding in.  I could not believe this was human's creation and imagination; it seems like a place where people talk about in novels but it does exist and it was right in front of me.  

When it was time to leave to our next destination, a part of me wanted to stay back.  The peacefulness was surreal and unbelievable. We spent one and a half day there and it was enough to give me a sense of how the town was like and to soak in the greeness of the mountains. I wanted to remain there forever and not have to come back home. I had to remind myself it is not possible and that I am on vacation and that this trip acts as a pause to my life and it will not make my life any different afterward.  As we drove out of the Swiss Alps and then enter France, I realize the memory of the green mountains acts as a new perspective; it shows me what is out there in the world and how insignificant I am compared to what is out there.  Sometimes life can surprise us and leaves us in awe at the same time.  We are amazed at the sights and the surprising experiences that the world gives us. Traveling, then, is an experience where one might be lost and then get found at the same time, it puts things in perspective and teaches us to see the world in a different lens than before.