Switzerland

      Well, this weekend consisted of a lot of "firsts" for me, which were both good and bad. This was the first trip I have taken here in Europe on my own (with friends and no tour guide, that is) and it actually turned out to be very successful! We made both trains on time and found our hostel without any trouble. The only difficult part was finding an inexpensive place to eat and inexpensive bars, which is nearly impossible in Switzerland. The average meal was between 20 and 30 francs and the average cocktail was around 10 to 15 francs. Because of such high prices we chose a small sandwich shop that served delicious food and had a very friendly staff who had no problem speaking English to us. In fact, everyone we spoke with was eager to speak English with us and very helpful. It is not like the French are impolite, but the Swiss were just more outwardly friendly.
      As friendly as they were, there were still many cultural differences that we had to pick up on. For instance, I was very surprised to see dozens of people walking down the street at night with bottles of vodka and whiskey like it was no big deal. It became apparent why they did this when we reached the bars and saw such insane prices for drinks. One pleasant surprise was walking around early in the afternoon and being handed a free beer while old people sang and played instruments. It seemed like there were people on every corner playing instruments and singing.
      One thing I didn't really expect was to be put in a room at our hostel with two older men. I knew that it was a possibility but it was a little more uncomfortable than I thought it would be. They were nice and quiet the snoring was almost unbearable. This is something that I am definitely going to have to get used to if I want to continue traveling on a budget. On the plus side, the room was cheap and we got free public transportation passes which let us ride all the trains and the Mercedes Benz public buses for free. This was a great trip and I hope to have many more like it while I am in Europe and for the rest of my life.
-Rachel Cooper