Hiking in Switzerland!

This past weekend, I got to see the beautiful landscape of Switzerland by going on a hike with one of my teammates. In Portugal, Sabine had asked me if I wanted to go hiking with her and her family and of course I jumped on the chance! We started off the trip with taking an hour and a half bus ride just to get where the trail began. Although it was pretty long, it was cool passing through all the little towns and seeing the lake get smaller and smaller from climbing up into the foothills. We finally made it and I was ready to hike!

Sorry its not one of the greatest pictures... but its still pretty!

At first we started hiking up the side of the road and then quickly went into an open pasture. I thought to myself, where are we going? I had a picture in my head that we would be hiking in woods with a little trail to follow, not hiking through pastures. Then I heard some bells and was still pretty confused until I turned the corner- we were hiking right through cow pastures! Sabine soon let me know that hiking through cow pastures is very normal when it comes to hiking in Switzerland! There were some times in the hike that we had to walk right through the middle of the herd to continue on our path. I think I asked Sabine five times are we really hiking through cow pastures with cows?? It was something that was so unexpected but it definitely put a smile on my face!

A picture from the side of the road... I just had no idea we would get so close to them! I also love how everything is so colorful!

Getting ready to hike past some cows!

Just a few of the cows we hiked past!

Of course being the animal lover that I am, I just had to get a picture by the cows! Most of them were pretty skittish but some were curious and would follow us around! I was able to get about five feet away from this cow. I think its great that he's looking right at the camera!

Right after we got through the cow herd, we walked past a huge dirt pile... or what I thought was a dirt pile. When I looked closer it was actually a huge ant hill! Sabine told me that they are called forest ants and are protected in Switzerland. I guess they are good for the forest and help the eco-system.

I don't think I've ever seen an ant hill so big! The darker brown color are all the ants!

Here are some pretty pictures from the beginning of our hike.

After we hiked for a bit through some more pastures we made it to our lunch destination- a small lake. It was pretty steep climb down to get to the lake. Although its nearly not as big as Lake Neuchatel it was still a beautiful place to have lunch. They even had a little picnic area that we could sit down and eat at.

This cute cow is trying to cool off in the lake.

This picture is for my sisters Jess and Karen! I can't wait for you guys to come over so you can see Switzerland from horse back!

After we had a relaxing and cool lunch by the lake we decided to get hiking again. It was another steep climb to get back up to our original trail.

Here are some more views from the top our trail looking over the lake. What a beautiful day!

Of course we passed some more cows as we continued on our hike. This time I was able to get a really good close up of the big bells that they wore. I asked Sabine why they wear the bells and she told me that they wear them so the owners have an easier time finding them. Sometimes during our hike it would be completely silent, just us and nature and then sooner or later we would start hearing the bells. At times it was a relief because we knew that we were getting closer to towns and hopefully heading in the right direction.

Right after we passed some more cows (they were seriously everywhere) I noticed a really beautiful flower. The flower looks like a sunflower but instead of the petals being yellow they were silver. It was especially beautiful because the sun was shining right on it. Again I asked Sabine, my great trail guide, what it was and she said that it was Silver Thistle. I've heard of thistle before back in the states but it definitely doesn't look anything like this!

It was back again to our hike and we came up to a sign.. we had three hours and fifteen minutes left!!! We started our hike at 10 in the morning and didn't finish hiking until around 5. It was a very long day!! Here are some final pictures from our hike. I had a great time hiking with Sabine and her family. They were great company and had no problem answering all of my questions. Hopefully I'll be able to go hiking again soon!

We were headed to Les Verrieres!

NUC Volleyball

So I'm sure you guys have all enjoyed my adventures around Neuchatel but now it's time to talk about the fun part.. volleyball! Neuchatel University Club is in the Division A league which is the top league in Switzerland. It then goes to B, first second, third and fourth. There are a total of nine teams in the A league and we will play each team twice, once at home and once away. There is also the Swiss Cup which is a tournament against people in our league. I'm pretty sure the tournament is set up where depending on how you finished in the league helps your ranking in the tournament. The team last year finished second in the league and this year we are looking to take first! Another tournament we play in is called the European Cup or the CEV. If you can't guess by the name, we play against other European teams. How you finished last year, places you for the following year. We play against Serbia in the first round and then who knows after that. I'm hoping we can make it far so I can see a lot of European countries! Our season is from the beginning of October and ends in April.. so it's quite a long time!

Right now we are just getting prepared for the season. Everyone on the team practices four times a week, Tuesday through Friday for about two hours. The girls who are from Switzerland have jobs during the day but for the professional (American) players like myself we also have two additional practices Wednesday and Thursday in the afternoon. On Monday, everyone goes to the weight room to work out together and again the professional players have an additional time that we need to go to the weight room. practice in two different places- the Riveraine which is where our games are also held and the Maladiere. The really interesting thing about the Maladiere is that the complex is huge! There is soccer stadium (seats and all) on one half, practice courts for volleyball, basketball and gymnastics on the fourth floor and a mall with a grocery store in the basement. I think it's so great that the stadium isn't only just used for games like how most stadiums are used in the states but that it can be used everyday. It's a much better use of space! So although we aren't in the gym the entire day, my days can get pretty busy!

I'm standing in front of the Maladiere Centre! This place is huge! If you notice the lights at the top of the building those are for the night soccer games. The blue windows is where we practice- it has a great view of the lake!

The biggest difference I noticed was the structure of practice. Here we start out with a 30 minute warm-up by our trainer Ophelia, compared to back home where we would compete in games as a warm up. Ophelia works us really hard but I think it will benefit us in the end. During the warm up we do some knee stabilization either with hopping on boxes with one or two legs and making sure our knees don't wobble all around. In the break with our partner we work on our balance which also helps focus on keeping our knee from moving all over the place. They really are trying to prevent as many knee injuries as they can by increasing our leg muscles and balance. Another important thing we work on is abs. Over here they call it genauge (sorry I have no idea how to spell it!) which is basically the plank position. If anyone has ever done it - it can be quite difficult! The first time we worked with Ophelia we had to do genuage for 2 minutes!! I was definitely dying before the end! The good thing is that the more we do the easier and longer I can stay in the position. I think I'm going to be really fit when I come back in April!

For the rest of practice we work on volleyball stuff- passing, hitting defense and serving. Our head coach Philippe was out of the country for the first two weeks so now the practices are more intense. Another thing I noticed is that there isn't a lot of technique coaching involved. At Illinois, my former head coach Kevin was all about a certain technique that he wanted us to use so there was always talk about what we were and weren't doing. I guess since we are pro's we should know what we are doing and fix it ourselves! I like that we can "self-coach" now because I usually know what I did wrong, but its just something I need to get used to. There are a total of three Americans on the team including myself. I'm playing outside, Lindsay Stalzer is going to play right side and Bryn Kehoe who was on the team last year will set. I think we are going to be very strong and I'm excited to see how we do in our first games!

Exploring

Since I had done a lot of exploring in my neighborhood, I decided to go check out Neuchatel. I've been there for practice and getting my bus pass but I hadn't done any sightseeing. I had talked to my teammates and they said that there was a castle in town. I'm a big fan of everything medieval, especially castles, so that was the next thing that was on my list to go explore.

I didn't really have any clue how to get to the castle but I knew the area it was in so I first decided to walk along the lake because it was such a beautiful day. I was so surprised with how many people bike and hike in Neuchatel. There are tons of people especially by the lake on bikes just enjoying the view. I'm always blown away at how gorgeous the lake is and how close it is. I've seen Lake Michigan many times but thats pretty far away from my home in Downers Grove. I know they have tours on the lake which I think would be fun for next time!

I love how the top of this foothill is covered in the clouds.

After I had gotten my share fair of beautiful views by the lake, I decided it was time to go find the castle. The great thing is the castle is located on the corner of a hill so all I had to do was look up and walk in that direction. I got pretty close and I think I looked lost because a woman asked if I was trying to find the castle. She ended up taking me right to it and was very kind. She gave me some background information on the castle as well. It was built in the 1500's and now the city uses it for offices. It is also located in the "old town". I believe that was the original town but now not many shops are there.

This is part of the old town that leads right to the castle

The front of the castle that overlooks Neuchatel.

The amazing view from the castle!

The courtyard in the castle. I was 20 minutes late for the guided tour of the inside so I'll have to come back and do that again!

Another amazing view!

There was also a church which was under construction that I wasn't able to go inside to see. Close by was a prison tower. Originally I thought that was the castle because it looks more of a castle that I had seen in books but this is where they kept the prisoners. You can also get a tour of this and thats also on my list as well!

The prison tower! It's interesting how close its located to the town!

Working my magic with the self timer!

This is the view from where I was just sitting in the other picture!

I can't wait to go back and actually see what the inside of the castle looks like. I bet the views are just as amazing as this one. I've done a lot of sightseeing but I've also played some volleyball too! I'm sure everyone is curious with how my knee is doing so I'll write about that soon!

Home Sweet Home

It's hard to believe that I've already been in Switzerland for 19 days! Looking back, some of the days seemed to last forever but now I think this whole experience will fly by very quickly. The great thing is that Neuchatel is really starting to feel like my new home. After a difficult practice I look forward to going back to my apartment and relaxing on the couch. Although i do like my time relaxing, I enjoy discovering the neat things in the city as well. I don't directly live in Neuchatel, I live in Marin Village which is about a ten minute bus ride from Neuchatel. I would consider my town a suburb of Neuchatel, although the city itself isn't too big. My apartment is pretty amazing! I have my own room that has doors which open up to our nice long deck.

This is a view from my porch!

We have a huge kitchen, living room and dining room. We even have a tv with tons of channels and some of them are in english! I couldn't be happier with the place! The town has cute apartments and houses everywhere and right across the street from me is a grade school.

One of the buildings for the school

Down the street is my new bank as well as the bus stop. It honestly couldn't be any easier trying to get to the city. The local mall is about a seven minute walk from my place. I have spent a lot of time there recently because they have free wifi and we haven't had internet in the apartment. The mall has anything and everything I would ever need. They have a post office so I can send mail and a food store called Migros. Migros kinds of reminds of wal-mart; It has electronics, food and clothing. The thing I like best about Migros is that it has some great deals on food! I've also spotted some great clothing stores but I haven't checked them out just yet.

The other sunday my roommate Valentia and I decided to go on walk. Valentia is from Ticino which is in Italian part of Switzerland. She is super nice and fun to live with and on top of that speaks really good english! It's nice having someone who can speak french especially in the first couple of days because I was so lost in the language. We really didn't have any idea where we were going so we decided to just head down the street and see where it would take us. At the end of the road we found a hiking trail and decided to take it. Well the trail ended up leading us right to the lake!

I had no idea the lake was so close to my apartment! It was amazing going from the dense forest to then having this beautiful lake before us. Everyday I'm amazed at how beautiful it is here. The lake in itself is breathtaking and then on the other side you have small foothills. Waking up to this is definitely different than waking up in Downers Grove. We stopped and took a couple pictures and continued on our way. On the path we found the coolest slug i have ever seen!

I've never seen a bug so orange! There was also little parks along the path that you could stop and play at. I was surprised to see that they had outdoor table tennis.. who knew! Luckily we didn't get lost and we were able to find our way back home.

I also went on another walk by myself but this time in another direction. Its fun to just walk and see what I happen upon. I didn't realize it but there are actually a lot of biking and hiking trails really close to my apartment! The great thing is that they have signs marked for biking, hiking and rollerblading so that helps me find my way. Well I walked and I found a little place for camping and vacationing.

They had paddle boats, windsurfing and even volleyball in the water. The coolest thing was the little vacation homes. I've never seen homes so small. Most of them had outdoor fireplaces and tables to eat at. It reminded me a lot of home when my family used to go to the Indiana State park. It was such a fun time spending with my cousins!!

Wrapping up Portugal

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while.. I don't have internet at my home yet so I have to go to a nearby mall to get connected.

The last post I talked about going to a beer factory, well the next day we went to a fruit juice factory. The factory is called Sumol which is also a sponsor to the volleyball club. It was neat to see the fruit get transformed into a juice. I think my favorite part of the tour was that we were able to try a drink that wasn't released to the public yet and it tasted good! Here are some pictures of the factory.

We had to wear "suits" so that we wouldn't get any fruit on our clothing. Also to hear over the noise we were given headphones that was hooked directly to our tour guide.

These are tomatoes are getting ready for the juicing process!

After the tour we were given free time. I used that time to talk to my parents as well as some friends. It was nice talking to people and updating everyone on what was happening in my life. We had another fun night going out to dinner and then out after that. We ended up staying out pretty late dancing again but we had a great time.

The next day we knew we were going to the beach but we had no idea the surprise that was in store! Although it wasn't the prettiest day (it was cloudy) they told us that we were going to go surfing!!!! This was my first time and I was so excited when they announced it. I've always wanted to go surfing but never had the chance to do it. Now i was able to go surfing in Portugal!! It started off by getting into our wetsuits because the water was pretty cold. Even though we had those on, it was a bit chilly.

The beach!

All of us in our wet suits! The two men without the green shirts on were our surf coaches.

We all grabbed our surf boards and headed to the beach. We had two instructors that taught us the basics of surfing. After our quick lesson on land, we headed to the ocean. If anyone has ever tired.. it is a lot harder than it seems! You have to have the perfect timing of the wave and then get up on your board. I wasn't that successful at first but towards the end I was able to get up a couple of times. Throughout the course of the day, I swallowed so much salt water. My eyes and throat started burning because I had fallen so many times. Despite all of that, I had a great time surfing. I can't wait to try it again!

Trying to listen intently to the instructions!

Me and my surfboard!

A bit chilly after we were done!

After our trip to the beach we were all super tired so we headed back to the hotel for some rest. Our night wasn't over though because we had dinner at a really nice restaurant. Although everyone was tired we decided to go out dancing again because it was the last night. The next morning everyone slept in the airport and on the plane. It was such a fun trip and it was a great time to bond with my new teammates. Now it's back to working hard in the gym to get ready for the season!