The Beginning of a Love Affair

Beginnings stand out in our memory. They are often charged with emotions, intertwined with hope, and linked to a shift in our personal identity. The first time you meet the love of your life, the birth of a child, or an experience of awe and wonder can stand out in your memory for a lifetime.

I can trace the moment that I fell in love for the first time back to a single experience. Now, this isn’t the story of falling in love with another person - that occurred a few years later. This is the story of how I began a life-long love affair with the mountains. My passion for exploring nature and searching for beauty originated on a train ride that changed my life and connected me with something bigger than myself.

Swiss train cruising through the Alps in winter. (stock photo)

Rome 1998

Angela - our sassiest Italian cook on campus

During the spring of my sophomore year in college, I joined about 100 of my classmates to study at our Rome campus for four months. Looking back on this, I can’t believe that we lived and traveled in Europe at the young age of 20, but we had no fear. We attended classes during the mornings, spent time exploring Rome and the surrounding area in the afternoons, and then studied in the evenings. We were immersed in Italian culture with authentic meals made by an amazing team of Italian women, espresso on-demand at the Cap Bar, and survival Italian classes to learn how to communicate a bit with the locals.

We were also able to travel beyond Italy. The semester was structured in a way that allowed us to have several three-day travel weekends, a five-day trip, and a ten-day trip to go wherever we wanted in Europe. We all purchased Eurail Passes before arriving in Italy, and the passes gave us access to most trains across Europe. We planned our trips to see as much as we possibly could in a short time, and to accomplish this, would sleep in overnight trains so that we would not lose a sightseeing day. To save money, we lived on baguettes and Nutella or biscotti (cookies). It was absolutely nuts, but it made sense for college students trying to make the budget stretch.

10 Day Trip

When there is no sand in Nice, France - build a “stone castle”.

I made incredible memories on my travel weekend to Capri, Italy and my five-day trip to Germany, Austria, and Belgium. Since these trips went so well, I was really looking forward to the ten-day trip that was coming up. I was especially excited to travel with my friends Leigh Ann and Melissa, and we had a dream trip planned - Nice, France to Barcelona, Spain, and then to Paris, France. Little did I know, this trip would end up giving me two of the best stories from my entire time in Europe.

We had a beautiful time relaxing on the rocky beach and building “stone castles” in Nice as we watched yachts and sailboats in the distance. We spent time exploring the works of Antonio Gaudi and the Olympic Village in Barcelona, and then we headed to Paris. Sight after sight, Paris was like a postcard. The architecture was incredible, and the monuments were epic. Reclining on the Champs de Mars near the Eiffel Tower, we sipped our Bordeaux wine and planned out the next day. We wanted to venture outside of Paris to see the palace of Versailles and the Cathedral in Rouen. We had no idea that we were about to have the wildest night ever.

The Wildest Night of my Life

Melissa and Leigh Anne at in the gardens at Versailles

We left our hostel the next morning and spent the day in Versailles, touring the palace and gardens. Then we hopped on a train to Rouen to see the cathedral - or so we thought. We accidentally got off the train at the wrong stop and were stranded. After sitting at the train station for a few hours, we realized that there was another train that was headed to Rouen that evening, but there were no more trains back to Paris. We were going to be stuck in Rouen overnight, but all our clothes and belongings were in our lockers at our Paris hostel.

Government building where we tried to sleep in the bushes

When we arrived in Rouen, it was already dark outside. We walked to the cathedral to see it since it was the reason we made this trek from Versailles, and then we had to determine what we would do for the next eight hours. The first train back to Paris from Rouen was not until 5 AM the next morning, and we did not want to spend the money on a hotel when we already had a place back in Paris. We roamed the streets for a bit, but it was chilly. So, we went into a bar to warm up and have a bite to eat. When the bar closed at 1 AM, we were back to roaming the streets. Finding a well-lit government building that seemed to be safe, we huddled together behind the shrubs at the front of the building to try to get some sleep (Yes, you read that correctly - not my brightest decision). Hunched together to conserve body heat, we just couldn’t get warm enough.

Posing with our new British friends and their street signs

We abandoned the idea of sleeping behind the bushes at the government building, and walked the streets to see if we could find a 24-hour shop or bar to warm up in. While roaming the streets, we heard yelping and loud laughter in an alleyway. We came across three college-aged guys who were bit tipsy. In fact, they were stealing street signs to take back to their apartment - we posed for a pic with them and their street signs (again, not the best decision-making). Visiting with them, we found out that they were British students studying in Rouen. They had a small flat down the street and invited us to come hang out until the time for our train to depart.

And - we went with them. Never in my life would I have thought that I would have this story to tell, but they really were friendly, and we were somewhat desperate for a place to get warm. In hindsight, they probably only invited us back to their place because I was traveling with two pretty females, but they turned out to be harmless. We stayed up all night talking and laughing with the British college students, and at 5 AM, they walked us back to the train station to catch our train back to Paris.

Independence

We were exhausted when we got back into the city. We went to the Louvre and Notre Dame and then sat to figure out where we would go next. Grumpy and tired, we were unable to come to consensus about where to end our ten-day trip. The ladies wanted to go to Munich, but I had already gone there on my five-day trip. So, we decided to part ways. They would meet up with other friends in Munich, and I would take a train from Paris to Zurich, Switzerland to spend one night before returning to campus in Rome.

Notre-Dame on my last day in Paris

This decision was one of those pivotal moments in my life. It was my first solo trip! I discovered how liberating and empowering it is to travel alone. Depending on yourself and having total autonomy to decide what you do or where you go is incredible. I still can’t believe that my first solo trip was about 1,500 kilometers and crossing through two European countries. But, without this trip, I would not have fallen head over heels for the mountains.

The Alps

Normally, we traveled on trains at night so that we could save money on accommodations, but knowing that I was alone, I felt safer traveling during the day. Daytime trips had another benefit - I was going to have a front row seat as the train meandered through the mountain passes and tunnels of western France, Switzerland, and northern Italy. For me, this was the first time that a journey truly felt more important than the destination.

One night in Zurich

Listening to mixed tapes on my Walkman, I sat next to the large train window and enjoyed the rolling hills and small villages as we left Paris and headed toward the Alps. Once we began to climb into the mountains, my eyes were glued to the window. Snowy peaks in the distance glistened in the sun. And then it happened…

The train entered a tunnel, and everything went dark. I could barely see the empty, backward facing seat in front of me. When we emerged from the tunnel, the light flooded into the car, and the most incredible sight etched itself into my memory. The light seemed brighter than a normal day - maybe it was because of the sun’s reflection on the snow - and the entire valley was white. A river crashed over rocks as it flowed at the base of the valley, and just beyond the emerald pine trees, I could see a waterfall from snow melt.

I was viewing the most awe-inspiring scene that I had ever witnessed, and it felt like the show was exclusive to those who bought a train ticket. Gliding along the river, the train revealed stunning beauty repeatedly. For hours, I listened to my 90s tape and gawked at the views. It was so gorgeous that I forgot to take any photos - I was present in the moment.

Once, I arrived in Zurich, I was able to feel the cool air and breathe the freshness of the Swiss mountains. It was good for my soul, and I knew that I would have the experience again when I boarded my train the next day for Rome. I was hooked! The mountains, paired with the experience of solo travel, had changed me.

Snowy peak in the Alps (stock photo)

The Change Within

I felt a surge of confidence and accomplishment following this trip. I realized that I could depend on myself and that I had the skills needed to survive in the world. During this overnight trip, I crossed the threshold from childhood to adulthood. Obstacles and challenges in my future did not seem so daunting anymore - something in me had changed.

Up to this point in my life, I had tried to be who I felt others wanted me to be, but through this trip, I realized that I had a life of my own to live. I recognized one of my core values is to seek beauty, and this would shape my future decisions and the person I would become.

The Love Affair

Almost 24 years later, I am still as passionate about the mountains as I was on the day that I fell in love with them in Switzerland. I seek opportunities to hike and road trip through mountainous regions and national parks, and I dream of living in the mountains one day. When I plan a trip, ninety percent of the time the itinerary includes time in the mountains. Maybe I am always chasing the feeling I got when I came out of the train tunnel in the Alps or possibly, I seek to replicate the sense of independence, wonder, and confidence I felt about myself on that overnight journey.

Either way, I will return to the mountains as often as possible. Their beauty beckons me to new adventures and the love affair continues. This summer, I will be going back to northern Italy and Switzerland for the first time since I fell in love with the mountains. I cannot wait to be back in the place where this passion was ignited within me, and I look forward to learning more about myself through traveling in nature.

The Trips Inspired by my Train Ride in the Alps

Follow @pinesandcoastlines on Instagram or sign-up for my mailing list to receive content directly to your inbox by clicking HERE. There are travel guides and itineraries for some of the locations pictured above at pinesandcoastlines.com/destinations. Stay tuned for more travels in the mountains coming soon!