From January 28 to February 8, 2023, I traveled to Germany, Switzerland, and France. Throughout my trip, something that caught my attention was the culture shock. It can be easy to forget about the rest of the world whilst living your own life, but seeing how others live theirs was a huge eye opener as to how large and diverse our world is. 

First up was Frankfurt, Germany. This area is more of a city, with the traffic, people, graffiti, and skyscrapers. It was different, yet nice to see so many people walking rather than driving. Most activities such as stores and museums were closed either Sunday-Monday or Monday-Tuesday, as they used this time to rest after the weekend rush. Like any city, there were places to be cautious of, especially as a foreign traveler. Streets flooded with scams or places with the intention to take advantage of tourists. Despite that, most people there were very nice to talk to. Somewhat similar to America, the countries I visited were ethnically diverse and had many native languages, including English. Which was more of an arrogant experience personally because a lot of Americans may expect tourists who visit, to understand and know our language, though there isn’t always much effort to learn others in the states. The language barrier is much more prominent in America than in Germany. So the fact that a completely different continent understood and made an effort to assist us through our travels was very humbling. The next place was Königstein im Taunus, Germany. Königstein was more rural. Not only was the nature gorgeous, but the architecture as well was very different. The roads in the town were laid with bricks, narrow, and some were steep. There was even a castle on top of a hill that we walked to. It felt as if the town hadn’t really been modernized, which was like a breath of fresh air. As far as the food goes, and this can be said about everywhere I visited in Europe, it was fresh and full of culture. I think one of the most diverse examples I noticed was the food. There were lots of different cultures throughout every place and it was genuine. We met some people from Turkey who presented a dish called Döner, which is also referred to as a kebab. It’s meat, like lamb, beef, or chicken, cooked on a skewer then cut off and typically served with fresh veggies and pita bread. There were plenty of other ethnically diverse dishes such as Pho, Italian, etc. We also had a typical Germanic dinner which consisted of schnitzel (breaded cutlet), bratwursts, sauerkraut, red potatoes, and apple wine mixed with sparkling water. 

We also visited Zurich and Thun, Switzerland. Switzerland was overall gorgeous and the air was very clean, as well as the water. Thun specifically, was alongside the Swiss Alps and Lake Thun. The same can be said here as Germany, as far as transport and language. Switzerland has a few more native languages including English, German, French, and Spanish. So communication wasn’t a problem. The town of Thun was glazed with a purple/pink color by sunset, which illuminated the Thun castle. It genuinely looked unreal or as if there was a filter, because of how full and bright the color was. Switzerland was very friendly and we had a traditional dish with some friends that live there, called Raclette which is melted cheese over boiled potatoes with meats and vegetables. Because Thun was more spread out, the main transportation was bus. Everything was an amazing experience that was filled with life.

 

From there, we ended our trip with Paris, France. The town was very busy, and one thing that amazed me was the traffic. There weren’t very prominent lanes, or at least that the cars followed, so everyone kind of went their own way. There was also a marathon while we were there that blocked many roads off, which made transportation by car difficult. There was a lot of biking and walking as well. We visited the top of the Eiffel Tower at night. It was gorgeous and the city was glowing. However, being that high up comes with a lot of wind. The build of the tower caught my attention, as well as the glow of the tower at night. We also saw the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre. Both of these were amazing places filled with history. It’s hard to believe that the stories we hear so much about or the famous rulers/leaders weren’t that far ahead of our time. The architecture was amazing and there was a lot of gold detailing in the Palace of Versailles. Overall, Paris was a very historical place that carried many stories with it.

 

The people who reside in these places seem proud of their home and most of them opened their arms to visitors. This was a very memorable trip that was not only fun, but educational in the sense that I got to see first hand what other countries we may learn about in books or videos, actually look like and how they perform as a civilization.