I think one of the best parts of our relationship is that as much as we have our own interests, we love a lot of the same things mutually, too. Travel is one of those things. Throughout our relationship, we never had the chance to travel internationally. In the beginning, it was too soon to do so. And later on, COVID hit. Our honeymoon was the first chance we had to travel. One of the things I love about us is that we travel to experience things together, but our individual thirst to see what life is like through the lens of another can never truly be quenched. I love that you love the differences between our lives and the lives of others. I love that you can appreciate the calm and the crazy that comes with all of our adventures, big and small.
Tag: switzerland
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Space
When I was little, I’d sleep with my head closest to the window in my room. I wanted to be right next to it, and it always needed to be open, if even an inch wide, despite the weather. It could be raining, snowing, or ferociously windy – I always demanded that it be open. It drove my mom mad. To her, it was the reason I constantly came down with a cold. To me, that was okay.
I realized in college that the reason I did that was because I constantly need to feel like I’m connected to the outer world in some way. Being secluded in my little room, yet having that subtle connection to the outer world, made me feel really at peace. It was weird . . it was like I wanted to be alone, but included in a part of something larger at the same time.
Flash forward a few years, I’m still the same person. I have an addiction to the outside, and always need space and (quite literally) space to breathe. Boston is inundated with skyscrapers and tall buildings that sometimes I really think they’re taking up the room I need to breathe. I know it sounds dramatic, but living in Longwood Medical area where some of the best medical institutions in the world are packed into a tiny area can drive you crazy. Then you add all the chaos of doctors scurrying to round, nurses harassing pharmacy over their meds, and impatient patients (haha, ironic . . ) waiting to be treated and go home, and you can literally feel like you’re suffocating sometimes. It can be so stressful.
That’s why I practice self-care. That’s also why I felt like I really needed this trip to Switzerland.
I’ll vouch for all the clichés when I say that Switzerland is relentlessly beautiful. The cities I visited were impeccably clean and well-maintained, aka I wasn’t afraid to use a public restroom. All the elements fascinate. The lakes are an impenetrable teal; the grass is a vivacious green; the houses have these cute, colorful shutters; and the mountains are straight out of a Paramount logo, complacently topped with soft snow that is so light and powdery that I swear you feel like it’s floating.
I felt like I could breathe in Switzerland. I originally chose the it because from pictures, it looked like the perfect balance of city and nature. One morning, I enjoyed a cup of coffee from the balcony of my host’s home while staring off into the Swiss Alps a grasp’s away. It was dreamy. I’ll never forget waking up every morning and looking out into the landscape, eating up every angle of it, sunshine and all (P. S., got super lucky with the weather . . bright and sunny everyday and it only rained today as I sit in my departure terminal to head back to the States, :D).
It was everything I expected. Looking back, I discovered so many elements of this incredible country, from the land, to the waters, to the mountains, and even the skies.
Here are some photos and a video featuring my adventures this past week, :):