Gryon

Neither Kelsey nor I had never been situated within a mountain range before, so I suppose the Swiss Alps were a good start. Our train ride into Switzerland was highlighted by vineyards and mountains.





When we arrived in Bex, Switzerland, the last stop before our destination of Gryon, we had to switch to a bus that would take us to a red train which would take us up the mountain. We found communication very difficult in Bex, because only French was spoken. A woman got into a shouting match with two Swiss bus drivers just so we could be let on the bus, though we really didn't understand what was happening.
The hostel which I had booked in Gryon is called Chalet Martin. It stands above Gryon, a small village, at over 3400 feet above sea level. Kelsey and I had a room of our own with a balcony. Over our four days there, the view was ceaselessly astonishing.














We spent one day in Villars, a town further up the mountain, one day laying in hammocks, reading, and perusing through a playground in the village, and the third day we spent hiking with a new friend, a photography professor at Concordia University in Montreal, a school that I will be applying to in the fall. Pictures from those days:


































Our hiking was disrupted by a rain shower, which was welcomed by Kelsey and I. After all of the inescapable heat from the first leg of our journey, the Swiss Alps were breezy and cool, and the rain felt wonderful. We went back to our hostel and dried our clothes, and the rain stopped. But we took the time to photograph what was happening outside. Clouds were rising from the valley below us, and a rainbow materialized, creating a bridge between mountains.











After a while, Kelsey and other guests at the hostel went back inside. The rainbow had disappeared and the night was becoming darker. I noticed that the cloud from the valley below us was beginning to rise toward the village, so I decided to remain outside and wait to see if I could be enveloped by the cloud. Kelsey photographed from the balcony.






It was a strange sensation, standing inside the cloud. The air was thick and moist and I could manipulate it by waving my arms, but what felt best was letting it wash over me. The feeling was great. That was our last night in Gryon, and those are the last of the pictures.