Looking for the Grinch at the top of the Matterhorn... Zermatt

***I am having trouble with my pictures but will hopefully be able to upload them soon***

This weekend was my first "official" weekend trip and it was the most amazing start to my travels abroad! If you think of the movie The Grinch and think of the town whoville, that's basically where I stayed, aka Zermatt, Switzerland! A small mountain town nestled right below the iconic Matterhorn mountain in southern Switzerland, just boarding Italy. Zermatt is such a small snowy town that no cars are aloud. You are only able to get there by train and once you're there you either hop on a horse drawn carriage, or weird little taxi car like automobiles. Part of the fun, is the train ride there. Three-four hours with a train car reserved just for our study abroad group and our only rule was not to bring hard liquor on the train. I'm sure you can imagine what an entire train car of college students and a boat load of beer looks like. Let's just say I went on the train with a mini keg and a bag of wine. Safe to say from that train ride I knew it was going to be one hell of a weekend.

Our train got there around 5pm and after putting our stuff down in the hostel, we had time on our own. Walking around town at 5pm is the rush hour for skiers. The streets are covered head to toe with skies and snowboards while the bars are absolutely packed for a nice drink after a long day. Every bar in town has ski racks outside and everyone piles on it despite still being in snow pants and a ski jacket. For a small snow covered mountain town, this place likes to turn up. The clubs are a hidden gem and the bars with live music make for such a great environment to let lose! Our Friday evening was spent walking around the town and getting to know the area. Friday night ended early because Saturday was the day of skiing.

I am not a great snowboarder; I can get down the mountain but not fast or gracefully. What I forgot to keep in mind was that I know how to snowboard in the mountains of Zermatt, these are the Swiss Alps.... little different in difficulty... The morning started bright and early around 8am. We hopped on the Glacier Paradise gondola and rode it for 25 minutes until we got to the highest station. The station, where we later had lunch, was right below the Matterhorn. The view was incredible overlooking the Swiss Alps which our train traveled through and seeing the town of Zermatt get smaller and smaller, but that wasn't even the best of it. From the station we hopped on the chairlift which took us so close to the Matterhorn I felt as if I could reach my arm out and touch it. The top of the mountain was the most amazing part because you were on the boarder of the Swiss alps and the Italian Alps. The chairlift took you straight to a drop off of the mountain and from behind a fence, you could look at the never ending mountains on the Italian side. Did I forget to mention that the weather was perfect? Sunny skies, barely any clouds, and decently warm! Of course, at the tippy top of the mountain a lovely wind storm would hit me in the face every time I sat down to strap my boots in, but luckily my kind boyfriend let me use his ski goggles to shield myself.

The skiing was incredible in the morning. I kept up with the boys who were very good at skiing and didn't fall much!! Granted, this was only on blue trails... when we hit the black diamond, things went downhill. The last run, was the prettiest but the worst. Joey and I had decided to ski down instead of take the gondola down since we might as well have one last run. BAD IDEA. With the sun setting, the snow turned into ice and things got steeper... After taking a nasty spill and falling directly onto my knees, we decided to walk a little bit before strapping my board back on. A local told us to take a trail that was less icy and steep, but he didn't mention it being narrow, icy, having lots of turns, and being on a cliff edge the whole time. Long story short, it was a long and painfully slow last run, especially for Joey since he's actually a good skier, but he didn't mind waiting for me. The only good we got out of the last run was the sun setting behind the Matterhorn and the fact the edge of the cliff we were on was on the edge overlooking all of Zermatt, which of course is beautiful.

Once we finally managed to get back from skiing, we of course followed the locals and spent the night bar hopping/clubbing. Despite all the pain I was in, that was the most incredible and worthy ski day.

Sunday, the boys went back out skiing but there was no way I could. I think if my knee touched the ice the slightest bit, I would've cried, so I spent the day in town with the girls. We wondered all over town, from one end to another. Going in all the little shops until we eventually found ice rinks. Yes, they had two ice rinks in the center of town. One for hockey and one for ice skating. I'm sure you can guess which one I chose! I feel like I haven't played hockey in forever so getting on the ice felt amazing! Some other guys from study abroad were there so we had a couple hours of shooting around and little pickup games. I can't forget the fact that the rink had the perfect view of the Matterhorn!! It was an absolute dream! I was dreading going back to Geneva because Zermatt had it all.

I could go on and on about how amazing Zermatt was but I don't think I could put into words how beautiful and amazing this place was! Definitely would recommend it for anyone! Even if you don't ski, there is so much to do and so much beauty around the town!

#Zermatt #Matterhorn #Skiing #Hockey #WeekendTrip