A Chocoholic's Dream Come True

This past week, we had our first week of independent travel. I had the opportunity to travel to the South of France, Paris, and Interlaken, Switzerland. By far, my favorite place we visited was Interlaken. It’s situated between two picturesque lakes with snow-capped mountains surrounding it. Not only is it one of the most beautiful places in the world, but it is also home to my favorite food staple, cioccolato, or chocolate. Swiss chocolate is world famous and is a favorite snack amongst the local Swiss people. You can find a plethora of chocolate in nearly every convenience store on the street. Needless to say, being a huge cioccolato amante, or chocolate lover, I was SUPER excited to try some authentic Swiss chocolate.

My first experience trying authentic Swiss chocolate was nothing but pure bliss. Our first full day in Interlaken, we went canyonning, which is an outdoor activity where you repell down into a canyon, zipline through gorges, cliff jump into pools of water, and slide down rock slides. It was such an amazing and thrilling experience, but by the end I was exhausted. On the bus ride back, our tour guide offered us each a piece of Swiss milk chocolate and you bet I was all over that! It was the best snack I could have asked for after a long day of activity and the smooth, creamy chocolate gave me a burst of energy to get through the rest of my day.

 

The following day, we decided to go on an adventure and wander up into the mountains where we stumbled upon a cute, local cafe in the town of Oberlin. Since we were all nearly freezing, we decided to venture inside and get a warm beverage, such as a cioccolato caldo, a cappuccino, or a caffe latte, whatever our hearts desired. I chose a big mug of cappuccino and since I’m somewhat of a cookie monster, I couldn’t say no to a warm chocolate chip cookie, as well. I can honestly say, this was by far the best cappuccino I have ever tasted, thanks to the Swiss chocolate shavings on top of the foam. It was so perfect looking, I almost didn’t want to mess it up by drinking it! As they would say in Italy, it was molto bene, or VERY good!

We all left the cafe very pleased and continued our journey onward, where we stumbled upon an amazing waterfall park in the side of the mountain range in Lauterbrunnen. This is one of the few places still left in Europe where you can literally go inside the mountains and gorges and get up close, right next to the waterfalls. We got a little wet, but it was worth it to be that close to natural falls.

I will definitely be going back to Switzerland at some point in my lifetime, I loved it so much! Not only for the delicious chocolate, but for the beautiful scenery you get to see. There’s so much to do there that I still would love to do, such as a Chocolate Train through the Swiss Alps where you get to see firsthand how Swiss Cheese and Chocolate is made. Every cioccolato amante’s dream come true!