This story is long overdue, I just have not had the time to write about it.
Last year I had made a trip to Italy with one of my good friends (which is another untold story), and I remember musing about how nice it would be if somebody came with me to Switzerland. It had always been on my bucket list to snowboard the alps, but nobody was able to go with me. Eventually I was like fuck it, I’m just going to go alone and that is how my love adventure of travelling solo began.
I booked a ticket to Zürich and took a train to Zermatt to snowboard in Matterhorn. Canadians. Zermatt is AMAZING. The train ride to the summit is a good 20 minutes and you can watch the mountain change from green to frost to snowy white. (Refer to pictures below). This had always been a dream of mine, and I genuinely cannot believe I got to do this.
Zermatt also provided some of my favorite travel stories. The first is the story of the Good Samaritan and the Second of my first Naked Spa experience.
Matterhorn is a huge mountain and thus some of the mountain is in Italy, Austria and Switzerland. I had bought an international pass and was able to snowboard on each side. I was silly and did not keep touch of where I was. I knew I was somewhere in Austria and that was all that mattered to me. Bad idea. Eventually I went off a jump and as I landed the bindings on my board broke off. My fall was incredibly painful and I had really injured my neck. Yup. It was not fun and I had no idea how to get back… until this older man came to me. He started speaking to me in German. I gave him a blank stare. He tried French. Nothing. English? AHA! Bingo. He instructed me on how to get to the bottom and the realized I was struggling. The sweet man stayed with me the entire way down, making sure I was safe and on the flatter parts he even pushed me with his skis. This was one of my great travelling highlights and stories of the goodness of humanity.
After I was at the bottom I decided I needed to do something about my neck. I had so much pain and was actually worried about what I had done. I booked a massage at the local spa and I was going to spend 30 minutes in the Sauna and then go to my massage. The first thing I saw when I walked in was, “no clothing allowed in the Sauna.” This really cracked me up as a North American, mandatory nudity. I was shy, but who could be in there right? I stripped down and walked into the sauna only to have three older men (who were talking as if nothing was of the matter) turn towards me and invite me into the discussion. It was so weird for me I had to leave. I now wish I had been more open with my body and not so weird, but oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and actually… I did feel weird.
My massage therapist laughed and said that she can always tell where someone is from by how they react to the nudity rule. She said the french have their clothes off before you can even ask them! And the Americans squirm at the suggestion. I told her I was Canadian, but noted this interesting observation. But either way the massage was great, the experience hilarious and my neck not broken.
Totally recommend Zermatt. I had a wonderful experience.
. 
