My first trip abroad (besides a trip to Canada when I was a few months old) was at 15, with my Girl Scout troop, to Switzerland. Not to be dramatic or anything, but Switzerland changed my life.

(Eh, who are we kidding? I totally mean to be dramatic.)

While I’d been obsessed with travel long before Switzerland, thanks to my love of reading (this is really all my parents’ fault), going to Switzerland kind of blew my mind.

Zurich was the first  city I ever found myself loving, as the only cities I’d visited at that point had been in the United States, such as Tucson or San Diego or Fargo, and I loved the country and towns much more at this point. I was surprisingly charmed by Zürich, with its old churches, the blue Lake Zürich, surrounded by mountains. It was so clean and everything was neat and organized, just as you might expect from the Swiss.

I adored the rest of Switzerland, too, and hence my real travel bug started.

Once I saw Switzerland, I knew I had to see more, and I haven’t stopped since.

I hope to go back to Switzerland someday. I know I’ll be seeing it through much more jaded, experienced eyes, but I hope the same joy and wonder I felt as a 15-year-old on her first international trip still surfaces.

Again, who are we kidding?

That same joy and wonder at traveling has never left me, and I have Zürich to thank for a part of that.

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All photos were borrowed from Wikitravel, since it was a decade ago and I didn’t have a camera back then! Especially not a digital one…and since apparently I’m still a few years behind, I don’t have a scanner either. Check below each image for the individual source.

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