Paradise

I don't know where to start this. I don't even really know what to write about, because every time I try I find myself in a kind of daydream -- a vast, crooked mountain watches over a little town tucked into a valley that is green and bursting with wildflowers. Sounds idyllic, but it's the reality of Zermatt, Switzerland, where you can find the Matterhorn: a towering specter of a rock jutting high above the land. 

It's quite a lonely peak, bleak and weather-beaten. I've heard that often it's obscured by clouds, but I was lucky. When I visited, the sun never stopped shining. There was a cool breeze through the canyon. And a polka concert welcomed me at the town center as I stepped off the train. Overall, my timing cannot be characterized as anything but providential. 

It was worth the price of the train ticket just to be there. If you're following along with me in my travels, you might remember how last week I was in Rome -- and there is so much that is beautiful and amazing about Rome. I wished I could have stayed there a week at least, but a month would probably still not have been sufficient to discover Rome how I wanted to. And I veritably ran to each site I visited. 

Sweet Zermatt was different. It wasn't that it was less beautiful, or even that it was more beautiful. I think it was that the beauty was presented to me differently. I didn't have to run through cobbled streets and take underground trains to spot what I was there to see: it was right there. All I had to do was walk to the end of the lane, and I didn't even need to walk quickly.

I guess it was also a little bit that it reminded me that I am the sort of person who can appreciate the beauty of a sprawling city, but who thrives on mountain air, dirt paths, and wildflowers. Zermatt felt like a rare gift in the midst of constant newness -- familiar, comfortable, easy. Kind of like one of those friends you don't have to struggle to find the words to say to. Kind of like seeing someone you really love after a long while and realizing that although many things have changed, your friendship hasn't. 

And honestly, since it's me talking, and I love to talk about romance, I have to mention -- I have been to some of the most romantic places on Earth. Like y'all, I've been to Paris and everything. And oh my goodness Portugal. I can -- and did -- write a whole 'nother piece about how romantic it was. But for all that I've seen and all the places I've been, Zermatt was the most romantic to me. 

I just felt safe there. Safe to be me; to be American; to be silly and dance around; to stop for photos; to eat nothing but bread and cheese and chocolate (which is the dream, for real); to have pink hair; to wear a plaid shirt; to pick flowers; to daydream, and to speak, which are two very powerful things.