Ever since taking a solo academic trip in Scotland, I’d been longing for another solo travel. Fortunately, as I got into the 4-month military training only a few weeks after I graduated, I still got enough time to go traveling before full time job starting in January 2024.

I fell in love with skiing at the start of the year in Japan, and it was approaching winter when I got out of the military, so naturally I picked Switzerland as my destination, with the focus being skiing.

Cost

I spent about 110k NTD in total (about 3.5k USD). Here’s the rough breakdown:

• flight: 35k NTD
• activities: 25k NTD
• accommodation: 20k NTD
• in-Switzerland transportation: 15k NTD
• food: 15k NTD

Switzerland is known for its high price compared to neighboring countries. I tried to drive down the cost as much as I could in most aspects. The plane ticket was the cheapest from TPE to ZRH with one transfer. I stayed in hostels every night other than the last night. The actual transportation cost within Switzerland was about 380 CHF including a 120 CHF half fare card. With the card it would be 520 CHF. For food, outside of Zermatt, I mostly eat prepared food in supermarkets. Inside Zermatt, I had no choice but to eat the pricey food in the restaurants on the mountains for lunch, but for dinner I pretty much ate McDonald’s exclusively. Half of my food cost was from the 5 days in Zermatt as a result.

What I didn’t save were the activities. I joined a kayak tour (about 90 CHF) in Interlaken on Lake Brienz, and I went to Zermatt, a world-class ski resort, for skiing (355 CHF for 5 days), while renting my ski equipment from a quality store (271 CHF for 5 days).

Preparation

Transportation within Switzerland

Switzerland is known for its sublime railway system. For short distance travel, you have buses all around the country and trams & e-scooters in Zurich. For traveling in & out mountains, there are also lots of lifts.

Switzerland offers an amazing app called SBB for 99% of public transportation, and you don’t even have to buy a ticket beforehand. It has a feature called EasyRide where you slide to start before hopping on the vehicle and slide to end when you arrive at your destination, and it will automatically calculate the fee and charge you. You can’t reserve a seat but in my experience you can find an unoccupied double-seat (like the whole row on a side) most of the time anyway.

There are even some areas that can only be reached by trains like like Zermatt, so if you’re not traveling in a group or carrying a lot of stuff, public transportation really is your best bet.

Accommodation

The average cost of a quality hostel in Switzerland is about 50-60 CHF a night in my experience, whereas you can often find a hotel room twice the cost. Therefor, it would only make sense for you to book a hostel if you’re traveling alone.

Packing Up

I took the trip with one single 40L bag from Decathlon (Forclaz Travel 500 Organizer). It’s much cheaper than the well known brands (Osprey, Deuter, etc.) while offering nothing less. Highly recommend it if you’re new to onebag as well.

I also bought a few packing cubes from Decathlon and rolled my clothes inside.

Here’s a list of all the stuff I brought with me.

Misc

• packing cubes
• foldable clothes hangers x5
• water bottle x1
• day bag x1
• sling bag x1
• plastic bags x3

Toiletries

• towel x2
• Dr Bronner bar soap x1
• toothbrush x1
• toothpaste x1
• antiperspirant x1
• body lotion x1
• contact lenses 1 box (30 pieces)
• nail clipper x1

Clothing

• underwear x3
• long socks x2
• normal socks x2
• t-shirts x2
• normal pants x1
• inner clothing x1
• middle clothing x2
• outer jacket x1
• inner pants x1
• outer pants x1
• snow glove x1
• beanie x1
• snow shoe x1
• slippers x1
• normal glove compatible with touchscreen x1

I forgot to bring my snow goggles so I bought one in Zermatt.

Tech

• watch
• phone
• iPad
• type C charger & wire x1
• power bank x1
• plug C adapter x2
• prepaid sim card
• headphones

My plug C adapters can fit in most J plugs.

Completed Itinerary

• Day 1-2 (11/29-11/30) Arrival & Zurich
• Day 2-4 (11/30-12/02) Bern & Interlaken
• Day 4-10 (12/02-12/08) Zermatt
• Day 10-11 (12/08-12/09) Geneva
• Day 11-13 (12/09-12/11) Lucerne
• Day 13 12/11 Zurich & Departure

My main focus was always skiing in Zermatt, so I only added other destinations close by the route between Zurich and Zermatt, meaning I didn’t go to the whole eastern part (nor the neighboring countries).

Day 1 - Zurich

Lindenhof

After arriving in Zurich, I took the train / subway to Lindenhof and walked around the area. It’s close to Christmas so the streets have Christmas light decorations between the buildings (or maybe they’re there all year around idk).

The riverside area is really stunning under the sun.

Spotted plenty of e-scooters scattered around the city and I decided to use one to ride to my hostel. There were a lot of different brands available as well through different apps, and I tried Bolt first in the Zurichsee northmost area.

I downloaded the Bolt app, scanned the QR code, and the screen lightened up, but when I pressed the throttle, nothing happened. So I stood there trying to figure out how to use that thing for a while, and there was really no other way. Thinking it was broken, I returned it, downloaded the Bird app, and rented a Bird scooter.

From the tutorial, it appeared that the throttle would only work when the e-scooter was already moving, so I tried pushing it first, and it finally worked. Since Bird was much pricier than Bolt, I only rode it for like 200 meters before returning it and rented another Bolt scooter, and when I gave it some speed first, it worked as well.

I must have looked like a total retard but I swear the Bolt tutorial did not mention this at all.

I rode by the river and there was a lot of great views. Parked by the river and walked for some distance to Zurich Youth Hostel.

Zurich Youth Hostel

“Zurich Youth Hostel” wasn’t actually called “Zurich Youth Hostel” so I got a bit confused at first but there weren’t any other hostels around the area so “Jugendherberge. Auberge de Jeunesse” must be it.

The lobby was big and nice so was the staff but I was surprised by an additional city tax charge.

The room was a 6-bunk-bed dorm with 6 lockers and 2 sinks and it was really modern and clean.

Zurich at Night

I stayed in the room for a while charging my phone and looking for a place to go, and went out at night heading for the Lindenhof surrounding area again.

I took the bus / tram this time, and I was really confused. I was aware that on the train maybe some staff will check your ticket, but on the bus?? You literally just went on the bus without any need of showing anything at all, and there was only the bus driver there so he can’t check your ticket either if you went up from the back door.

According to Reddit there would be ticket checkers on buses occasionally as well but I’d never encountered it.

I ate at the Coop cafeteria, which was cheaper than the normal restaurants but still very expensive.

There was a Christmas market nearby and it reminded me of Taiwan’s night markets … and an insanely upgraded version. Taiwan’s night markets are like the European Christmas markets for the broke.

I walked around the whole area at night and the streets with the Christmas lights were a bit underwhelming tbh.

Really like the Schanzengraben area (narrow path along a brook) tho. The vibe was amazing, so peaceful and quiet. There I experienced a strong freeing feeling of traveling alone.

Bought a chocolate donut and a ham cheese croissant at Lidl for my 2nd half of dinner, and they were really good, and cheap as well.

After exploring the Lindenhof and riverside area at night, I walked a long way back to the street the hostel was on and took a bus back. Walked 24k steps this day and my legs were almost broken.

The texture of the bedsheet of this hostel chain really felt like a towel .. and I discovered it too late.

Day 2 - Bern

Morning

The breakfast was continental, and it was actually better than those in some of the Iceland hotels. It offered a crunchy Ovaltine (TIL Ovaltine is a Swiss brand) chocolate syrup for toasts and it was so good. I’d never seen a crunchy chocolate syrup before.

Packed up my stuff and headed out for a bus to Zurich HB to catch a train to Bern. There was a very big snow, and many pedestrians were even using umbrellas (I thought only Eastern Asians used umbrellas). It was hardly colder than yesterday tho.

Love the vibe. It never ceases to amaze me how a mere few hours of snow can completely change the outlook of an area.

Train to Bern

On the train to Bern, I was asked to show my ticket for the first time on this trip. So I showed the ticket inspector my EasyRide barcode and turned out I was in the first class while my ticket was for the second class. No wonder the seat was more comfortable than ScotRail, and I thought it was because of Swiss engineering.

The second class wasn’t a significant downgrade but the seat was smaller. It still offered free plugs (type J but my type C adaptors could still fit in tho loosely at times), but I would rate it below ScotRail’s seats.

I really do not understand Europeans’ love for the face-facing seats.

Bern

Bern was sooo beautiful. There were Christmas markets everywhere, and it felt like a big beautiful town rather than a generic city like Zurich (only learned that Bern was the capital of Switzerland rather than Zurich half a year later …).

I had lunch at a Migros restaurant (a very salty spinach tart), wandered around the old town area, and then took a tram back to the train station.

I hated the snow on the streets btw. So dirty and made it so hard to walk around. It was my first time witnessing this kind of situation actually. I would absolutely hate snow had I grown up with it.

I stayed in Bern for a total of 2.5 hours, all with my big backpack. Pretty tiring tbh.

Train to Interlaken

I forgot to turn on EasyRide on the train to Interlaken and when the ticket inspector was approaching I tried switching it on but apparently you weren’t allowed to do that while moving. I was fined CHF 10 as a result (the ticket price was CHF 14 with a half-fare card). I was disappointed about the surcharge but then I searched on Reddit and apparently this was nothing compared to the outrageous fines others had faced. It was actually a miracle that I was only fined CHF 10.

There were also two travelers from Argentina found out to be using half-fare tickets without half-fare cards.

Interlaken

So Interlaken is literally between two lakes. I can see that it must be incredibly picturesque on a sunny day, but sadly it’s a rainy day, and everything looks grey.

I walked from the train station to my hostel tonight, and it seems to be a pretty peaceful and quiet town.

Adventure Hostel Interlaken

This hostel was simpler, less modern but more comfortable than the one in Zurich. The room is a 4-bunk room with a cozy vibe, the linens were already set up, and there was a private bathroom with towels and shampoo / body wash. There were no lockers in the room though. It also gave you a guest card for free public transportation and discounts on some local activities.

There was only me and another person staying for the two nights I stayed there. The other person was a middle-aged woman from the Philippines touring around Europe, picking Interlaken to visit for her small Switzerland detour because of Crash Landing on You.

Interlaken · Night

I wandered around Interlaken in the evening. Always find it soothing to walk around in an unfamiliar town or city.

I kind of hate crossing the road in Europe because when you do every car in the world would just stop and wait for you to cross even if you make it obvious that you want them to go first.

I had dinner in Migros Restaurant, and then walked a long way back to the hostel.

It was still raining lightly, but unlike in the day when rain can kill any amazing views, rain only adds to the vibe at night.

I walked through all the busy parts in the west part of the town, crossed River Arare (the major river of Switzerland, also the one connecting the two big lakes), and then walked back to the hostel along the river.

Day 3 - Interlaken

I had two activities this day, paragliding in the morning and kayaking in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the paragliding tour was cancelled because of the rain.

I rescheduled it for tomorrow and then walked to the train station, deciding to chill and walk around by the shore of Lake Brienz until my kayak tour at 13:20.

When arriving at Interlaken Ost, a bunch of tourists were stuck at the door waiting for it to open. A local suddenly excused herself through the crowd, pressed a button while explaining “You need to press the button …,” and the door opened.

The water tap of the public toilet would emit a few seconds of soap water before clear water, never seen that before.

The Long Walk

I bought some bread from Coop before starting my walk, but I forgot to bring my daypack, so I ended up wrapping the plastic bag around my sling bag like a genius.

I walked from Interlaken Ost to the area around Hightide Kayak. I also crossed a bridge to roam around a small town with a peaceful vibe for a while. The views were good, tho it was raining.

I have no idea what’s up with the public toilets in Switzerland tho. Sometimes there would be a free public toilet randomly but often times the toilets in train stations were not free of charge.

Kayak Tour

The kayak tour was pretty professional. You need to wear a full kayak suit and shoes with a life jacket.

The kayak was pretty easy to control. We first rowed to the bridge I walked on earlier, and then along the rock cliffs to see some things. Finally, we rowed to the middle of the lake to have a tea party. Fucking amazing, that was really out of my expectation and imagination. Our kayaks sat side by side, forming a circle, and then the guides passed down some cookies and tea. Incredible experience. Don’t have the photos unfortunately, but it was like this (from Hightide Kayak IG):

I also tried to have a taste of the clean water of the glacier lake. I’d say it felt fresh.

The kayak tour was moderately fun. I would rate it 8/10. There was a group of young American girls (~20yo) in our batch and it was pretty awkward to be alone with a big group of people but it was fine. It was raining during the kayak tour but the view was still amazing.

Back to Interlaken West

Walked all the way back from Lake Brienz to the Interlaken Ost station under moderate rain, before it suddenly turned into snow. Pretty cool, like one second it was raining and another second there was a snowflake on my phone screen.

The Coop restaurant was about to close and had no food left, so I went to the supermarket, grabbed a pizza, and found a table to eat.

Night

Went to a highly rated chocolate & gelato (ice cream) store Vanini for a scoop of dark chocolate ice cream, 5 CHF. It was actually a bigger scoop than I expected. It was good, though not as otherworldly as a Redditor described.

I ate it while walking under moderate snow. A pretty cool experience, eating an ice cream covered by white snow. Since it was early I walked back to the hostel following the same route as yesterday.

Walked almost 26k steps today, a personal high. I pretty much crossed the whole Interlaken with train & foot.

Day 4 - to Zermatt

Morning

Got up early today for paragliding, only to see the world snowing. As expected it got cancelled again.

After checking out, I bought a multifunctinal Merino scarf for 34.9 CHF in a sport shop (Eiger Sport) on my way to the train station. I had been longing for it for quite some time, since that dude in Pack Hacker praises it in like every video.

It’s a bit underwhelming because the beanie mode barely functions. It’s super thin so under 5 degrees Celsius you’d still need a proper beanie.

Visp

I had a stop at Visp on my way to Zermatt. Bought a Croque Monsieu as lunch while taking a stroll in the town, and I was absolutely appalled by the scenery.

This town is literally in-between the mountains and you can see the beautiful Alps everywhere. Who would have known a random town in Switzerland would be such a beauty.

I had been thinking about it for some times but I really thing having a proper lunch during travelling, is a massive waste of time, especially in Winter at high altitudes areas. If you go to a restaurant for lunch, that’s 2 hours gone, while the sun sets at like 4 or 5. Just think about how much beautiful sceneries you can capture with your eyes or cameras with 2 hours of daylight …

Train to Zermatt

The train ride from Visp to Zermatt was truly amazing. Really really fucking mesmerizing when inside the snow valley, like I was really about to cry.

Really a legendary train ride, like you could give up your life for a glance of it.

Made me think that it would be really awesome if you can travel around Iceland with train.

Zermatt

The town of Zermatt was really cool. The whole town was a ski resort. There were many hotels, restaurants, bars, and countless ski equipments stores. It was pedestrians and buses (& taxis) only, and almost every pedestrian here was carrying their skis. Basically every single person in the town was either a visitor coming to ski or a staff of a local skiing related business. Incredible vibe walking in the town.

Unlike what I saw in Japan and Scotland, the majority of people here were skiers rather than snowboarders.

I went to Julen Sport (recommended by random redditors) to rent the skiing equipments, and then took a bus to the stop close to my hostel. It was one of the most tiring journey in my life. I had a sling bag, my 40L backpack full of stuff, the rented skis, poles and the big heavy skiing shoes that I hung on the front strap of my backpack like a fucking genius, in a small and super crowded bus full of people with their skis. The bar was really high so it was really tiring to maintain by balance.

Zermatt Youth Hostel

It wasn’t actually called Zermatt Youth Hostel. It was a really hostel-like hostel, much more basic than Zurich Youth Hostel, tho they were of the same hostel system.

The room was an 8-bunk room, and was surprisingly full, like it was only early December??

Exploring Zermatt

After settling up my stuff in the hostel, I walked back to the town center. I went to the Sunnegga gondola station first to print out my ticket from a ticket machine. It’s just a thin and slightly hard paper ticket.

It was after 4pm, and watching the people swarming out from the gondola tunnel was really cool.

I then went to Decathlon to buy a snow goggle because I forgot to bring mine. The basic version was so cheap compared to other stores, only 60CHF while the ones in normal stores cost 100-200CHF at least, but it still looked pretty good. The one in my home was also bought from Decathlon, but I was a noob back then and bought the one for the most sunny day accidentally (S3, 8% - 18% light transmitted through the length). I bought the one for the most light allowed this time and it felt so much better.

I walked through the whole busy area of the town. There was really a restaurant every step.

There was an ice rink there and some people were training.

After having a meal in McDonald’s I walked back to my hostel. The area around my hostel was really cozy at night, quiet and peaceful.

Day 5 - Zermatt Skiing Day 1

Morning

The funicular started at 8:30, and it’s 1km away from the hostel, so I thought about getting up at 6:40. However, not one person got up at that time in my room, so I just kept sleeping, thinking that since everyone was here to ski, I’ll just go with the flow. At around 7:40, finally a person got up, while others were still sleeping. Since it was already pretty late, I got up, got ready, and went to breakfast.

It’s really full of school vibe. Everyone’s living in the same tiny dorm, going to the same place (up in the mountain) and doing the same thing (skiing).

Up to the Mountain

I packed up, carried my skis, and walked 1km on the stiff and heavy ski boots to the funicular clumsily. When skiing in Japan, we were required to have our paper ticket on the arm (inside a slip) for manual inspection from the ski conductors at each ski. In Scotland, I only need to use the ticket to get on the initial funicular to get up on the mountain and then forget about it. But in Switzerland? I had no idea.

I stood before the funicular gate for 5 minutes, pondering how the hell did they just pass the gate simply by pushing their hand or arm against a big panel. And then I realized they probably just put their tickets inside their jacket or gloves. So I put my ticket inside my gloves, and got past the gate easily.

I thought it was a pretty smart solution, certainly so much more advanced than Japan … until I discovered that I’d lost my ticket when I was trying to get past the gate for the cable car to Rothorn.

Apparently I let it spirited away when I took off my gloves in the bathroom in Blauherd. Fortunately when I backtracked to there it’s still there.

I was almost crying when taking the lift from Findeln to Sunnegga by myself. The view is truly astounding.

Rothorn Area

I started my first run from Blauherd, the start of No. 7. It’s a blue-rated run, which is the lowest rating there, but it’s not at all an easy run … There are a few reaaally steep slopes in No. 7, not at all easy level. It’s pretty much as hard as the blue runs in Naeba, Japan, but blue there means intermediate, which should translate to red here.

The first 2 runs were really scary, but after that it was fine. The most horrifying part wasn’t the steep slopes actually because the steep parts are very wide, but the really narrow part that is just beside a cliff. It’s Darwinism.

After spending some time in No. 7, the run right after it, No. 6, finally opened. It’s also marked as blue, but unlike No. 7, it’s actually easy. There’s even a beginner learning area with a super mild slope and a conveyor belt to transport you up.

I felt comfortable after more runs and decided to go up to Rothorn and take on No. 11, a red run.

After trying out No. 11, I’m pretty sure No. 7 should be classified as a red instead of a blue.

Confirmed that I can ski a red rather comfortably, I could finally explore the whole mountain (a few mountains actually).

Lunch

I had lunch at Bar Buffet Sunnega even though I did bring a tuna rice ball and black chocolate. I took a Swiss Potato Dish with Fried Egg (20 CHF) and Coca-Cola 405ml (7.5 CHF). The coke was 2x the price of the supermarket below the mountain btw.

The potato dish was reeaaally salty, more oversalted than the food in Iceland, not even kidding. I wouldn’t have survived without the coke. I decided to bring my own coke from the town from then on, since I noticed that having a daypack on my back had little to no effect on my skiing surprisingly. I never really felt it except when leaning against the back of the lift.

Hohtalli Area

I went to the Hohtalli mountain after lunch. First I took No. 19 to Gant, then a cable car to the Hohtalli peak sitting at 3286m above sea level.

I skied No. 44 & No. 29 down to Breitboden, and then a chairlift back to Sunnegga. The lift to Sunnegga was really cool. It was the first time I took a chairlift route that consisted mostly of downward slopes. The slope before Eja was especially steep, super scary.

It’s also very long because it’s composed of 2 lift routes, Breitboden -> Eja & Eja -> Sunnegga. You can’t stop at Eja if you’re coming from Breitboden (because there’s no point in doing so).

I had 2 big falls in the afternoon. The first one was in No. 19, in a rather narrow part with lots of people. There was a couple blocking a part of the road, with the woman on the ground and the man standing beside her. Due to the blockage, many other people in the area, and my original speed, I was forced to zigzag in the crowd at a rather high speed, before inevitably falling down since I wasn’t an expert skier.

It was a rather smooth fall. It wasn’t on the mildest slope, so after falling down to the ground I kept sliding, until I figured out my orientation, adjusted my position, and finally stopped the slide.

Both my skis were still on my feet, but one of my poles was several steps before me. I tried to walk up there, but it was too steep.

The man was slowly guiding the woman to ski then, blocking 1/3 of the way. I tried raising my pole to seek help, but no one stopped. After a while, a skier noticed the couple and slowed down, before noticing me. I explained to her that my pole was up there, tho she had already skied my pole then. She then walked up there very difficulty, before finally successfully retrieving my pole.

The 2nd fall was at No. 29, at the end of a not-very-steep wide straight slope. A small group of people came over and checked in. I really don’t know why and how I fell, but one of my skis came off and ended up stuck on the ground. It was a rather easy slope in fact. Probably because I saw someone fly over me and soar into the air at the start of the slope, and that I lost a lot of control after skiing for so long.

I didn’t get hurt at all in both falls though, and I didn’t even have a helmet on.

Wrapping up

After coming back to the Rothorn area from the Hohtalli area, due to the time, I only did a few more runs before riding the funicular back down to the town. That was around 4pm.

Recap

I officially progressed to the intermediate level this day. I was a bit worried about not wearing a helmet initially, and had a lot of FOMO since everyone else was wearing it, but today’s experience tells me that I really don’t need it.

I still think that a lot of the slopes in No. 7 (blue) are harder than most of the reds I’ve skied today. It’s very steep, and is scattered with clusters of power snow, making the surface anything but smooth. I never really understand the appeal of powder snow. It’s so scary to ski on an uneven and unpredictable surface.

Tbh I’m still very scared of skiing. It’s just so fucking horrifying, so fast and the slope is so steep and sometimes narrow, and the skis are clumsy and hard to control. When skiing beside a cliff I’m always like bruh one single brain fart and I’m dead.

Comparing the runs in Zermatt & Naeba, Japan, aside from the incomparable stunning views of the Alps, the runs here are all much longer. If I don’t stop and rest at some point in each run, I would really stretch my legs.

Town

After going back to the town, I bought some drinks in Migros. Coca-Cola 450 ml here is 1.45 CHF … and 7.5 CHF on on mountain. Also bought a can of mate and beer. It is said that skiing after drinking is awesome, so I’ll probably try the other day.

Dinner

I went to Zermatterstübli for dinner, the restaurant I reserved for yesterday. The server, a middle-aged woman, was very cocky and elitist. When I asked for water she was like, what kind of water do you want? Oh tap water? We don’t serve tap water here 😮‍💨🙄

I ordered a fondue, and it was one of the most dreadful and painful meals I’ve ever had. It looked amazing, but tasted like nothing but salt.

It came with nothing but a BUNCH of bread. No meat, no veggies, BREAD. I will never ever eat it again in my life.

3/10 tourist trap, unless you’re from Iceland or someone who also enjoys having salt as the entirety of your meal. It’s also 28 CHF … for nothing but salt & bread & more bread like wtf.

Definition of a tourist trap.

If Iceland’s tourist trap is Svarta Kaffið’s bread bowl soup, then Switzerland’s is the cheese fondue But the bread bowl soup is at least somewhat good, which is entirely not the case for cheese fondue.

I still ended up eating everything with my sheer mental prowess.

It does look fucking delicious however.

Yesterday the restaurant was fully booked, yet today it was empty as hell. It’s Sunday today, so it probably means that many of the visitors were Swiss or Europeans who only come here on the weekend. There were still plenty of people on the streets at night tho.

After the disastrous dinner, I decided to go to McDonald’s for dinner for the rest of my stay in Zermatt. Yesterday I had a Big Mac at McDonald’s and the experience was orders of magnitudes better than today’s at Zermatterstübli.

Night

Temperature is really irrelevant once you have all the covers up. It was -8 at night, and although leaving my hands uncovered for merely 10 seconds would make them start burning, when covered I really didn’t feel any cold.

Day 6 - Zermatt Skiing Day 2

Ski Pass

I wanted to explore the further mountains more so I skied straight to Gant after a few warm-up runs … only to find out that my ski pass didn’t work anymore when I tried to get to the cable car that would lead me to Hohtalli. I argued with the staff there, and he pointed me to the staff in the station for the lift to Blauherd 20m away. And so I did.

The 1st worker there used his poor English and cocky attitude to tell me that my pass not working in the cable car station down there was not his business. So I walked to the gate, showily slapped my ski pass to the detector, smashed it across the surface, confirmed that it did not work in that station as well, and walked back to him. Later, another staff with slightly better English and attitude told me to take the lift to the Blauherd station and change my paper ticket to a plastic one.

The plastic pass cost 5CHF for a deposit, but it’s so much nicer.

Brainrot

After dealing with the ski pass replacement, I went to the bathroom, drank a mouthful of cola and water in the resting room, and then walked to the cable car.
After settling down for a few seconds, a white hair man came to me fiercely and said “You took my shield!” I said oh my god (while his mates were laughing) and then rushed out to grab my ski across the fence and went back, not willing to meet an eye with them.

On Rothorn, when I was slowly adjusting my gears, one of his mates came to me and asked him why I took his skis, because mine looked nothing like his, mine’s black and his was blue. I could only say I was not paying attention, quickly apologized again, and then skied away.

Lunch

After finally reaching Hohtalli, I skied No. 44 & No. 36 down to the buffet in Riffelberg.

It’s truly an amazing area. The ends of No. 44 & No. 36 were very wide, the sun was big, and the views were awesome. Simply beautiful.

I ordered a Penne Presto, and in contrast to the salt I had yesterday, it was very plain.

After finishing off the beer I brought onto the mountain, I started my afternoon skiing.

Schwarzsee

After a few more runs in the Gornergrat area, I took the cable car to Furi and then to Schwarzsee, which is on another mountain. I didn’t attempt to go up any further due to time.

I skied the long and winding No. 51 down back to Furi, and it was soooo much fun. It’s a narrow road in the forest, kind of like the runs in Tashiro, but longer. The first half is steep slope after steep slope. Afterwards it’s just a very long flat and narrow forest road. Pretty cool.

Return

After returning to Furi, I immediately took the ride to Riffelberg and then Gifhittli. It was already 3:35pm then, and the closing time of the lift from Breitboden to Eja had the closing time of 3:50pm, with the entirety of No. 29 between the 2 stations.

And then I fucking feel not once but twice. It was honestly not a very hard run, but the sun wasn’t visible then, making it a bit foggy.

I had a fall in No. 29 yesterday as well. This time I first fell in a big curve after a steep slope, and second time in an ordinary surface. Both were just small falls, but in the 2nd one my left ski went out, and I just couldn’t get my boot back on the ski.

I was really nervous, thinking maybe when I fell the sizing mechanism was triggered and then I would never make it to the lift. Finally I took off my right ski to try to figure out what was wrong … turned out I forgot to press the thing in the back back down, no wonder I couldn’t for the love of god get my boot in.

Started to ski again right away, but I suffered from tremendous pressure due to low visibility + low confidence due to the 2 falls + physical strain + time pressure. Finally, I arrived safely at 3:45pm, and rode a series of lifts & funicular to get back down the mountain.

Day 7 - Zermatt Skiing Day 3

Ski Boots

Apres-ski in day 1, I actually went to Julen Sport again to change my boots, because the one I had was too narrow and was giving me plenty of pain. I got wider boots and proceeded to ski with them yesterday, and although it was better, it was still too narrow for me. After getting down from the mountain yesterday, I had a pretty severe pain in the outside of my left foot, that kind of paused when I was walking, but whenever I stopped the pain immediately came back.

So I walked to Julen Sport again this morning. This time it was a young & energetic man helping me, with a much better attitude than the middle-aged guy helping me before.

We tried adjusting and changing to another pair of boots, but it’s still too narrow. He then tried to give me a pair of ski socks to try on, which didn’t help at all. Finally, he got another 2 boots for me, and the last one did the trick. Turned out it was the widest of all, with a width of 110, while my original one was like 90.

Trockener Steg

I pretty much went straight to Trockener Steg once I got up to the mountain.

The view from the Furggsattel lift is fucking insane. Matterhorn at a very close distance, and the slopes are so wide.

The slopes (No. 71 72 73) look super easy as they’re super wide and not too steep, but they’re actually not that easy because they’re not well paved, with piles of powders everywhere.

I had my first off-piste experience there, skiing to No. 72 from No.71 across the off-piste section.

Lunch

After having some fun in the area, I head to the Ice Buffet at Trockener Steg station for lunch. I had a Spaghetti Bolognese there, and it’s not bad. 20.5 CHF.

I discovered that there’s a very cool system in European ski resorts, Skiline. It will visualize the data collected every time you beep a lift gate with your ski pass. All you need to do is go to the website and enter your ski pass number. Very cool.

It was 2.5km from Italy.

Matterhorn Glacier Paradise

After lunch I took the cable car to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, the highest point in the resort, at 3883m above sea level.

There are actually a lot of things in the station. There’s a weird cinema with egg-shaped seats, a restaurant, and also a “palace”??

The view from the top is really amazing.

I’m really disappointed that a ton of runs and lifts are closed. It’s already the proper winter season (after Dec 2), but only 15/54 lifts opened at max in the past few days.

What upsets me the most is the fact that the runs on the top of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise aren’t open. I really wish I could ski there.

Leaving the mountain

After going back to Trockener Steg, I skied to Furi. The route was actually a bit confusing.

From the map it looks like you can ski all reds from the top to Furi, but actually, there are no outgoing red edges in Furgg if you really look closely. The only way to ski from top to down is by taking No. 62, which is a black. If that’s not a choice, then you need to ski to Furgg, take the cable car to Schwarzsee (it’s higher than Furgg), and then ski No.51 down.

It was already 3:20pm when I arrived at Furi, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to Sunnega in time. I thought about going to Riffelberg and taking the train back to Zermatt, only to find that the cable car to Riffelberg had already closed, even though from the app it was supposed to close at 3:45pm.

So I took the cable car directly to Zermatt … and I was so shocked when I opened Google Maps after it arrived. I had no idea that the cable car station was closer to Zermatt Youth Hostel than the Sunnega funicular station was!

This opens up so many opportunities. I’ll definitely take this cable car straight to Furi (and then to Trockener Steg) tomorrow morning. Turned out the location of Zermatt Youth Hostel is both a strength and a weakness. It’s a bit of a distance to both transportation points to the resort, but it’s about right in the middle of them.

Day 8 - Zermatt Skiing Day 4

Took the gondola I discovered yesterday to Furi this morning. It was very crowded compared to Sunnegga, probably because a funicular can transport more people.

It took 45 minutes to go from Zermatt to Fruggsattel.

There’s a bunch of “PDS Sport” people skiing there. They even have Porsche sponsorship on their shirts, full of aura.

After skiing No. 72 down from Fruggsattel with full protection and double gloves, somehow my hands and ears were burning from the freezing code. It was brutal.

Red 71 & 72 are honestly more like blue.

I skied 70 down to Furgg the second time, and then I discovered that the runs at the very top were finally open. I immediately got all the way up to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

Matterhorn Glacier Paradise

The piste at the very top was wild and mild, labeled as red but it was like the bluest of blue. No. 73 is basically a long flat road, for you to ski slowly while enjoying the view of Matterhorn on the left.

If it’s all glacier up there, then it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Well it definitely feels more like the big and flat and snowy Langjökull Glacier, not the icy Vatnajökull full of ups and downs.

Lunch

I got up to the top again, this time for lunch. The view from the mountain-top cafeteria was pretty nice.

I finally tried Rivella, the popular Swiss soft drink, this time, and I didn’t like it. It did taste like Calpis but carbonated & transparent though.

Cracked ski boot incident

I left at 2pm, and skied all the way down to Furgg, took the gondola to Schwarzsee, and then continued skiing No. 51 down to Furi.

When I was just about to leave, I had a bizarre fall. After I put my skis down, I first got my left boot in, and since the slope was super mild, pretty much flat, I thought I’d just put my right boot on while sliding forward slowly. However, I struggled to get my right boot in. When almost slid to the edge of the piste, I tried to turn, but ended up doing a front flip … for some reason. It was a perfect front flip, and I got up immediately after, only to find that both my skis had flown away. My right ski was a few steps behind me, while my left ski ended up just in front of me.

This fall created a tiny crack on my left boot, but I didn’t know then. When I got out of the gondola at Schwarzsee, got my boots into the skis, and was prepared to ski, I noticed something weird about my left ski. My left boot was installed, but the mechanism kept pushing my left heel up. I tried to release my left boot from the ski, but I couldn’t. So basically my left boot was stuck inside the ski.

I walked to the side where there was less snow, got my left boot + ski off, and took it up to inspect. Turned out there was a tiny crack in the heel of the left boot, and the bottom side of the mechanism was stuck inside the crack.

I knew that I could just get the boot off the ski by force, but with my awkward positioning to avoid the snow, my bare left foot just couldn’t generate enough force. When I was about to go ask the lift operator for tools, I met a middle-aged man’s eye. I explained to him after he asked me if I needed help, and he proceeded to take up my ski+boot and kick it … and it worked.

Riffelberg

When I resolved the issue and got to Furi, I still had time to take the gondola to Riffelberg, and then I finally got the chance to take the train up to Gornergrat.

It was a blue run, and was about to close. There were a bunch of beginners pizzaing on the narrow road, and I had some fun zigzagging among them.

Finally I took the train back to Zermatt, for the first time.

The train was very slow, and the schedules were far and few in between. It was slow not only because of the speed but also the fact that it couldn’t go across the mountains like a lift.

The view is great tho.

Day 9 - Zermatt Skiing Day 5

Conquering 3 mountains

The cable car I took to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise wasn’t open, but another “cableway” was open. It was from a more premium station.

This “cableway” is actually more like a gondola rather than a cable car because there are seats inside, and unlike the cable car line with only 2 cars for the whole line (one on each cable), it has a car after a car like a gondola.

I learned that Swiss engineering was actually pretty shit because the cableway was having some issues so we had to stand there waiting for quite some time.

I was on a mission to ski all of the open slopes on the 3 mountains today, so I was quite upset about it.

After finally getting up, I skied all the way down to Furi, took the lift to Gifhittli, skied down to Breitboden, got up to Rothorn, skied down to Eja, got up to Rothorn again, skied to Gant, got up to Hohtalli, and the finally skied down to Riffelberg for lunch. And that’s all 3 mountains completed.

Lunch

Had a Carbonara for lunch and it was the first delicious meal I had in Switzerland outside of McDonald’s.

Gornergrat

Played around in the Gornergrat area in the afternoon. There were lots of fresh POW at the side. Super soft. I had some fun alternating between the pistes and off-piste. I had no idea how to ski in powder so I fell down multiple times.

Vodafone

I was using a prepaid SIM card from Vodafone I bought via a Taiwanese shop. My plan was 19GB of data outside of Spain, but somehow it stopped working when I only used 8GB. I contacted the Taiwanese shop and they claimed that Vodafone abruptly lowered the cap without upfront notice, and they’d give me a full refund.

I used the link from an SMS I got from Vodafone to refill 5 euros, which should give me over 2GB of data. I then did some digging myself and found out that the data adjustment was already online a month ago, so the Taiwanese shop was either lying or ignorant.

At night somehow my data stopped working again, while I only used 200MB. After a lot of digging I finally found a way to chat with a real Vodafone agent on Whatsapp. The agent, however, was gaslighting me the whole time, saying that if I didn’t do some specific operation then I would only have 200MB of quota. He then sent a Vodafone page in Spanish that did mention 200MB but very obscurely. It’s not the problem of Google Translate but the wording itself.

Since I had the full refund, I decided to take the risk and refill 5 euros again. I then called *452# like what the agent told me, and selected “10GB 5E”. I called again to check my current data usage, and it told me “Consumo Bono de Datos Privado 10GB: 435 KB de 3 GB validos hasta 05/01/2024. Consumo Bono de Datos Privado 10GB: 0 B de 10 GB validos hasta 05/01/2024.” I assumed that it meant that I have 3GB outside of Spain and 10GB in Spain.

I did get 3GB of data after this but the whole thing is still ridiculous. It makes zero sense that I have to do some obscure operations after paying 5 Euro to get 3GB, otherwise only 200MB.

Day 10 - Geneva

Geneva

Left Zermatt for Geneva via train. Very funny that the restrooms in small train stations are free but those in big ones aren’t. Both Zurich & Geneva main stations charge you toilet money.

Along the Geneva lake there’s a bunch of massive ducks and swans, almost as big as Big Chungus, and completely unafraid of people.

Walked past a park with the kind of huge chess field I saw in Bern. But there were more here, and people were actually playing. There was even a small ice skating rink in the park.

The river area in Zurich is quiet and vibey, while that in Geneva is busy and vibrant.

Overall Geneva is pretty lame for a European city, just like Zurich (tho Zurich is a bit better). Very generic. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are miles ahead.

Geneva Hostel

I hate everything about this fucking hostel. The bathroom is dirty, the shower room has no detachable shower head, the card detectors are so fucking bad, the wifi is really slow, the bed sheet is super hard to put on (and so I gave up and only have it half done because I’ll only be on this bed for a couple of hours), the bathroom door is always shut off loudly (the dumb fucking design forces the door to slowly close most of the way before releasing the hydraulic pressure in the final few centimeters to make it slam shut in high speed), the locker is not in the room (it’s locked by your key card tho which is nice but again the detector is shit), and most importantly, the people here fucking suck. Apart from the dude (like what you’ll think of when you think of the word “dude”) below me (I was assigned the top bed unfortunately), this hostel is full of loud groups of people shouting, laughing, slamming the doors, and heavily stepping on the floor.

About the dude, this massive fucking douchebag (bearded, 30 something) came into the room at 10 with a bunch of luggage when everyone was already on their bed, and disrupted everything, including my belongings, My jacket, hat and neckwear were on the chair, and then he just fucking messed with it to make space for his bag, making my neckwear and hat fell to the ground. He also tossed my boots (exaggerated) to other places, and opened the fucking window, while it was so fucking loud outside.

And then the guy in the other bed was eating snacks with his mouth open. Fuck this bs. I am never ever staying in a male-only hostel room again.

This is the worst hostel I’ve stayed in until now. Zurich Youth Hostel is so much better while having more or less the same set of facilities and offerings.

Day 11 - to Lucerne

Geneva Hostel

I know why Geneva and Geneva Hostel have such a different vibe. It’s because it’s close to fucking Fr🤢ce. It’s just so fucking noisy and busy in this hostel.

There’s not even chocolate syrup and vegetables in the breakfast, and FORK!!! Disgusting Fr🤮nch. Let’s review again why people hate French: People who hate France, why? | Reddit.

To Lucerne

Hopped on the train to Lucerne in the morning. I was quite interested in the UN office not very far from the hostel, but the sooner I could leave this France-bordering area the better, so I just left.

Passed by Lausanne on the train, and the view of Lake Geneva and the Alps is sublime (tho that’s actually the Fr@nch part of the Alps). I would much prefer staying there than in Geneva.

I originally planned to only stay in Lucerne for 1 night, but after researching the stuff to do in Lucerne on the train, I realized that there were actually a ton of fun things to do and see, so I cancelled my stay in Zurich and booked another hotel in Lucerne, since my flight in the final day was in the afternoon.

Lucerne

It was cloudy and raining but from the lake and the close Alps, I could clearly see that, just as in Interlaken, it must be STUNNING on a sunny day.

I walked around the northern part of Lucerne while waiting for the check-in time.

Backpackers Luzern

Backpackers Luzern said there were free lockers for you to use in the lobby and first floor but it was actually bs because they were all sealed somehow. And the earliest check-in time being 5pm is really ridiculous.

The hostel is full of signs like this, and the staff are mostly young girls as well.

Unlike most of hostels, the bathroom here is a private space of toilet + shower, basically your regular private bathroom but public. Very interesting.

It also has a very interesting approach of having a really big bed sheet as a fusion of bed sheets and duvet covers. You fold it in half and put yourself inside like a half-opened sleeping bag.

Night

Taiwanese people are often very proud of their night markets for some reason, but European Christmas markets »»» Taiwanese night markets. Taiwanese night market is basically like Temu Christmas market. Taiwan really has no redeeming quality (except the price).

Day 12 - Lucerne

Hotel Münzgasse

Contacted the Hotel Münzgasse yesterday to make sure that I could check in today at 10am. It’s a hotel with an obscure entrance and self-check-in. You enter your info and the kiosk will dispense your key card. Pretty interesting.

Mt Rigi

Got to Vitznau from Lucerne via a ship ride, still with SBB EasyRide. Kind of puzzles me because it means that from one point to another, whether by train, ship, or even a gondola, the price would be the same??

The views on the ship ride were pretty modest because of the clouds, but from the cogwheel up to Rigi the scenery of the lake and the green fields from up high was awesome.

Shortly I saw people using T-Bar outside of the window … it was a ski resort. And apparently you can ski FREE if you have a cogwheel ticket, which I obviously did. Had I brought my gloves with me I would have probably skied.

You can also rent and sled from the top of Mt Rigi. But I didn’t have my gloves so I couldn’t. It’s way too freezing without gloves.

In the end I was actually glad that I didn’t bring my gloves, because I ended up walking down the mountain and it was the second best experience I had in the whole trip, second to skiing in Zermatt.

I only planned to walk to another cogwheel station originally, but then I realized that I could actually walk down the mountain.

It was 2:50pm then and the road sign said it was 2hr to Weggis. I knew it would be very dangerous if I didn’t get down the mountain before sunset so I just started running down the snowy icy path.

It was really really tough and dangerous, but fun as hell. The views are astonishing as well. You can see the Swiss Alps, the two lakes, the greens and the towns. And initially it was all snow surrounding you, but as you worked your way down, it became green mixing white, and then green dotted with white snow. Amazing.

When I got to a flat long path, I found myself straying away from the way to Weggis, so I opened Google Maps, and found out that I could take the gondola at the end of the path to get off the mountain.

Had to buy a ticket because you can’t use EasyRide on this one. There were no operators at all in this Seebodenalp station. At 4:32pm, 2min. after the scheduled time, the gondola door closed itself and moved itself down the mountain. Pretty creepy tbh.

Then I took a bus and then a train back to Lucerne.

Day 13 - Leaving

Bought some Laderach for family and friends, hopped on the train to Zurich Airport, and left the country.

Reflection

Switzerland is awesome, but not the big cities like Zurich and Geneva. They are just generic cities, not the beautiful ones you’ll see in the rest of Europe. Really should have skipped Zurich & Geneva and spent more time in the rural area.

For the areas I went to this time, here’s my ranking:

Zermatt > Lucerne >= Interlaken > Bern > Zurich > Geneva

Half of my trip was spent on skiing so I didn’t really get to explore Switzerland to the fullest. I have a lot more plans for this beautiful country. I want to visit Lucerne again but in summer because lots of gondolas and activities aren’t available in winter. I want to ski in Zermatt again but in Jan or Feb when there’s more snow to enjoy the most complete package. I would also like to explore the eastern part of Switzerland.

Overall this trip is definitely the best one I have ever had so far in my life. The majestic view, the thrill of skiing, and the absolute freedom of traveling solo are just unbeatable.