I can’t believe it’s approaching the two week mark since I’ve left Sydney. It’s been a crazy experience so far with a lot of ‘firsts’ ticked off my life-list.

So far, everyday has been busy and exciting. I’ve met a lot of new people- all super friendly with lots of stories to tell. It’s a bit surreal for me because I’ve never been the overly extroverted social type of person. I’m generally not good at meeting new people and making friends. Most often I prefer to be alone in my contemplative, brooding mood. But I said to myself that this year would be the year of “challenges” and I really feel as though I’ve embraced the challenges that have come my way since I’ve arrived in Switzerland. I just love listening to other people and hearing their stories 🙂

Anyway, on Sunday I went to Château-d’Oex with some new friends. We were supposed to go and see the festival international de ballons (The International Balloon Festival) but unfortunately the bad weather prohibited the balloons from taking flight. Nevertheless, we still had a brilliant day!

We took a train from Lausanne Gare to Montreux, and from Montreux to Château-d’Oex. The train was, to be blunt, freaking awesome. You could order meals and drinks and it honestly seemed somewhat of a fairytale, what with the wooden interior and design. The train ride to Château-d’Oex was amazing. We went past beautiful scenery and I SAW SNOW FOR THE FIRST TIME. My eyes were popping out of my eye sockets.

A lot of people can’t really believe that I haven’t seen or touched snow before, but let’s be honest- it’s not really the ‘norm’ when you live down south. I never knew snow was so fluffy!

We built a really weird looking snow man (it looked more like a penguin) and then had a bit of a snowball fight until we realized we were standing in a cemetery. After frolicking in the snow, we went to the town of Château-d’Oex and looked for a nice restaurant and ate some fondue au fromage (cheese fondue). My first fondue! And it was cheesy! And très délicieux.