Quand j’était en Suisse

I was in Switzerland in August visiting my friend Shruti. It was the perfect opportunity to see her after so long and also take a much needed break from my dissertation. Lausanne is so different from London. It's more peaceful, but sleepier, with a zillion opportunities for nature lovers and those crazy about adventure sports. Oh and it is so French, only better (mainly because I could understand the Swiss French accent, unlike the French French accent).
Lausanne is also a city built on the slope of a hill, so the roads are quite steep in most places. You can even feel the inclination when you travel by the underground metro. The cutest part about the metro is that when a station approaches, there is a themed music that plays unique to that particular station....so even if you miss the name of the station, the sound effect should be enough to tell you where you are.


I even went para gliding en Suisse, over the Valaisian Alps. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.



You glide through the air, over mountains, into clouds, staring down at corn fields and little chalets. The air ever so gently pushes you in different directions. You stare down and see your feet hanging miles away from land. The road is just a thin line, the houses look like a Monopoly board game and the magnificence of the mountains becomes clearer.



It is liberating, hanging from a few pieces of string, feeling the cool breeze and feeling nothingness beneath your feet, but at the same time feeling as though the entire landscape belongs to you. It gives you a strange sense of power and at the same time you're at the mercy of the wind.



Navigating myself



Christophe - my instructor


My instructor Christophe, taught me how to navigate myself and let me take control of the glider for a few minutes. Ahhhh, one can't imagine how that feels - Being in total control in mid air, knowing that you could lose that control just as easily. Adrenaline.....lots of it !!!

Of course, i even visited Geneva to see my very own south Indian super star Affan. Too bad we didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but he did take me the United Nations building in Geneva.





A Memorial to all those people who lost their limbs due to land mines, right outside the UN building.




Jet d'eau (Jet of water)
Apparently there was a pipe burst long ago because of which the water shot out like a fountain...but because the people of Geneva liked it so much, they just kept it that way.

Now that I'm back home in India, I miss my life in London and my travels to Europe. I wonder what's next.