Bienvenue!

We made it! 3 flights, 1 train, 2 metro rides, and a whopping 4,461 miles, and here I am: Lausanne, Switzerland—home sweet home for the next year.

Aside from being supremely exhausted, travel went remarkably smoothly- everything was on time, the luggage wasn’t lost, and more importantly, I didn’t get lost!

After arriving in Lausanne, Ben and I retrieved our keys and moved into our new (very tiny!) flat. It has almost ship-like compactness, having just enough room for 2 beds, a desk, a small kitchen , a bathroom (or, as I say now: WC) and some shelving…all in about the space of a large-ish Duke dorm room! While it will certainly be fine for now, I’m hoping to move into something larger next month.

Although Ben and I were absolutely beat, having gone well over 24 hours without sleep, we were both determined not to go to sleep until at least 9 pm, forcing ourselves to overcome jet lag and adjust.  We decided to take a walk through Lausanne’s charmingly windy (and deceptively steep) streets down to Ouchy, Lausanne’s main marina on Lac Leman.  

Having been in Lausanne 2 summers ago, I was happy to discover how familiar the city felt to me. I could clearly recall jogging along the streets we were walking, enjoying picnics in the parks we were passing, and meandering along the very same cobble stone streets two years ago that we strolled through today. I loved being able to show Ben the city, playing a bit of a tour guide, as well as just relax and enjoy walking by the soft blue-grey lake, admiring the distant mountains and wishing I had a piece of bread to feed the numerous swans.

Although dining out in Lausanne is ridicously, ridicously expensive, having not eaten since a small muffin on the airplane hours and hours ago, Ben and I decided were tired and hungry enough to splurge. Besides, it was our two year anniversary (!) and we thought we deserved a bit of celebration.  

We settled on the somewhat-famous Ouchy Creperie, perched just across the street from the lake.  After staring at the menu for a few moments, clueless and ravenous, I decided that if nothing else, I was going to master the French food words. Fortunately, between Ben’s years of high school French and my previous summer in Lausanne, I was able to successfully order a delicious cheese and spinach crepe.  “Hitting the spot” is definitely an understatement.

Alas, I have no photographs of my first day in Lausanne—while I kept my camera on me on all times like a good little blogger, I forgot to charge the batteries.    

French word of the day: Epinards = spinach (as learned by ordering a crepe)