Switz
Switzerland is literally the most expensive country in Europe, BUT one of the most gorgeous places I have ever visited. I visited eastern Switzerland a couples months ago, and noticed that the prices were INSANELY OUTRAGEOUS, so I had to think smart when spending money. I ended up only spending around 150CHF for my 2 week stay in 3 cities in Switzerland (which included food, transportation, & housing.) Side note, Switzerland broke away from the EU a long time ago and have been using the Swiss Frank (CHF). It’s basically equivalent to the US dollar.
The cheapest thing on a McDonald’s menu was a gluten free cheeseburger that sold for 3 CHF!!! THREE. A dinner at a restaurant can easily cost anyone 20CHF-30CHF (literally that was the cheapest I’ve seen). Grocery store prices were reasonable, so I only bought food at supermarkets if I needed to. Transportation prices were also inflated. The only way to get around the country was either hitchhiking, biking, or taking the trains. Depending on the city, buses were a little more cheaper.
A big majority of my transportation came from trains. The easiest and cheapest way to train around Switzerland is to download the SBB Mobile Train app. It lists out all of the train routes and gives a selection of discounted tickets. For all of my trains, I bought a SuperSaver ticket which was only valid for that specific departure time. It was nearly half of what a normal ticket would cost. If I was traveling short distances, I wouldn’t even buy a ticket. I would just sneak onto one and either hide in the bathroom or just stand by the door. I got caught once and played dumb and said that I thought I could buy a ticket on the train. It worked :) Otherwise, I could have paid a 200CHF fine lol.
I biked a lot!!! Biking didn’t cost anything, and it’s such a cool way to see the country. There were bike lanes EVERYWHERE, so everyone biked. I ended up hitchhiking a couple times too.
The only money I spent on housing was at a last minute hostel in Geneva that I stayed in for literally 4 hours (I’ll explain later). Otherwise, I couchsurfed and volunteered at a WorkAway house.
Bern, 06/19 - 06/20
I took a morning flight from Roma to Geneva, Switzerland where I had to travel to a small town called Därligen to volunteer with a family at their yoga/airbnb retreat. Switzerland isn’t part of the EU, so my phone didn’t work for most of my stay. I took a train from the airport to the city and then had to walk 40 minutes to a bus station lol. The bus was heading to a small town called Annemasse where I took a 16CHF bus to Bern (the capital of Switzerland). I spent the afternoon in Annemasse and then sat on a 4 hour bus (the train was only an hour, but costed twice as much. Gotta save that cash!!) I literally had no where to stay in Bern. Hostels were literally 45CHF a night, and I was messaging couchsrufers constantly, but no one was responding RIP. Literally as soon as I arrived in Bern, someone accepted me:) Nicolas was a Switzerland techno music producer, so I crashed at his place for the night. He showed me a lot of his music (he’s on SoundCloud: Keakume) and then we just talked and chilled out for the night.
Interlaken, 06/20 - 06/30
The next morning, he showed me around the city and then grabbed some beers at local brewery. That afternoon, I took a train from Bern to Därligen where I met the WorkAway family I’d be living with for the next 10 days. LITERALLY I have never met such an amazing group of people. The mother Mukti was this 40 year old woman who had some crazzzzy stories. She was raised in Brazil and then literally ditched her entire life and booked a flight to India where she worked as a paraglider instructor. She learned yoga and meditation and her life literally changed so much. She moved to Nepal where its super dangerous and was not allowed to come out of her hut (literally she lived in a hut with no electricity or bathroom and never owned a cellphone) after 5pm because the streets are super dangerous. She met her husband David on her travels and they’ve been together for 20+ years and had kids while they were traveling (Joy & l forget the daughter’s name.) They were obsessed with me!!! They weren’t allowed to play on the phone, so I was always sneaking mine to them lol They were always playing with my jewelry and touching my tattoos. They were so amazed.
David was actually attacked in Nepal by a gang and literally almost died. He’s originally from Genève, Switzerland and wanted to travel back to give the kids a better education. David works as a paraglider instructor in Interlaken and Mukti is a stay at home mom and takes care of the Airbnb. Mukti was explaining to me that they used to paraglide to each mountain in Nepal & Thailand and just camp out and then fly to another village when they got bored. Literally the fucking life.
She taught me how to meditate and explained the different categories of yoga. The family only ate vegetarian so it was nice to eat something different for a change. She gave me a couple recipes that I will def make when I get back to the States. sooo good. My entire stay was so peaceful and each family member had a different personality that I can relate to. I loved it.
The house they lived in was 300+ years old and needed workawayers to help renovate the house, clean, and check-in airbnb guests. For the majority of my stay, I just cleaned.
After lugging concrete blocks and stone up a hill for 6 hours to make a car park, I drove the bike into Interlaken, a town nestled in between the Switz Alps that connects Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. It’s such a touristy town, but so cute. Everyone bikes here. Like I was riding the bike on a highway with people zooming past me going at least +70mph. I walked around the town and then biked to Goldswil. IT STARTED DOWN POURING and I literally had to seek coverage in an abandoned castle for an hour. I headed back to Interlaken where I stumbled upon a children choir concert, so I stopped in to avoid the rain. I literally did not belong there lol. I was dripping in water and I looked homeless. I headed back to the house where I met 4 Australians. Super nice and cool people. We just talked and drank on the porch for the entire night.
That morning, we hiked to a suspension bridge that overlooked the entire valley. It was insane. We had these super fancy ice creams at a restaurant and then I said goodbye to them, hoping to visit Australian soon :(
The family wasn’t home, so I took a quick nap, cleaned up a little (I found 50CHF lol) then woke up to the entire outside kitchen TRASHED. Literally I just stood there in complete awe. All of the spices were emptied onto the floor, eggs were splattered everywhere. The entire fridge was literally emptied and poured everywhere. Like what the fuck. I called Mukti and she immediately knew who did it. The entire village knows everyone, so it was kinda easy to figure out who it was. There’s these two psycho young girls who once put cats in a garbage bag and threw them off the roof. She called their parents and they took pics of everything. It was literally like a criminal investigation lol. Like there were foot prints on the floor and one of the girl’s toys were on the table.
I got up early and the family drove us and an Airbnb guest from India to a beautiful mountaintop called Mürren. This place was gorgeous. We took a train to the top where the daughter BROKE HER ARM on the playground lol. Mukti and the kids went to the hospital and then the Indian man and I hiked. He was so annoying and rude. I literally ditched him and put him on the train and told him I was going to hike some more. He got pissed and actually like grabbed me and kinda shoved me onto the train and I was like noppppee!! I took a nap in the fields, did some walking meditation, and then headed back down the mountain. I walked around the town, visited a waterfall, and then hitchhiked back to Interlaken where I took a train back to the house.
Cleaning and lake days!! Joy was always hanging around with the boy who Mukti said was being abused by his parents. He was always carrying around an iphone and a Coke. His teeth were literally rotting and he just looked dirty. Sad :( He was 6 and still wore diapers and always kept on asking random questions. Joy only had 4 other classmates in his school (that’s how small the town was), so I got the vibe that he was kinda forced into hanging out with him.
That morning, I painted and spackled a bathroom. The family left to visit their grandparents near Geneva for a couple days (yea they left the entire house to myself for 3 days), so I had to feed the chickens, check-in a couple guests, clean the rooms, and water the garden. Mukti gave me money for food, so I biked to Interlaken and picked up some groceries. I hiked to Harder Kulm (2,480’ incline RIP), an area that overlooked the entire Interlaken valley.
I biked 50 minutes to St. Beatus Caves. It was sweet. The caves were huge and it was so pretty. I grabbed lunch back at the house and then took a train to Kandersteg and hiked to Oeschinensee Lake. Literally one of the most prettiest places I’ve ever seen.
I finished up the bathroom and then did some thrift shopping in Interlaken. I took a nap near the river and then chilled out at the house. I accidentally left the hose running all night when I was watering the plants OOOOPS.
I had to clean the Indian man’s room and it was DISGUSTING. Food was all over the floor and his bed, and he literally just left the entire place a mess. A couple other guests complained about him, so I had to confront him about it the night before. I told him he had to checkout at 10am that morning because there were new guests coming in the afternoon, but he literally refused to leave until 11:30 :) Lol. The family got home later that night.
Today was my last day with the family :( I bought train tickets for the morning to Geneva and then booked a hostel for the night. The family convinced me on ditching my tickets and to spend my last day with them on a snowy mountaintop called Grimsel. Their little cousins joined too (they were also obsessed with my phone and jewelry lol). David went crystal hunting (they have so many cool crystals all over the house) in the mountains and Mukti and I did a little hiking. We meditated for a good hour while looking over the snowy valley. It was so fucking peaceful. I was so happy. We headed back to Interlaken and stopped in a small town to have a beer and to swim (I detoxed cigs and alcohol for 2 week, so I had a big boy beer to reward myself). I said my goodbyes, and then they dropped me off at the station. I’ll miss you guys.
I had to take a train to Bern and then transfer to go to Geneva. All of the trains going to Geneva were cancelled for construction, so I literally had to navigate myself through the train system and transfer like 5 times to get to the city. I finally arrived at my hostel at 2am :) I hate my life.
Okay so I was heading to Marseille, France and the cheapest way was to take a bus from Geneva to Annemasse, then take another bus to Lyon, and then another one to Marseille lol. It was literally €6 for the entire trip LOL.
I woke up at 5am to get my first bus, and then walked 40 minutes to the bus station. Little did I know, the entire station was fucking closed and under construction. I looked like such an idiot asking all of the locals where the fuck I get this bus, but I wasn’t the only one. There were 2 other people doing the same, so I didn’t look like a complete fool. So of course I missed my first bus and had to Uber FROM SWITZERLAND TO FRANCE, it was like €35 :(
I made my second bus and then headed to Lyon!!