Never Give Up on Your Dreams

by Elma Katherina (Indonesia)

A leap into the unknown Switzerland

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Last year was a miraculous year for me because for the first time in my life I can touch snow in real life! After my Schengen visa application was approved, I arranged my first tour to Europe. My first destination was Switzerland because it is a very beautiful country and it has eternal snow on its mountains. I used an application to arrange my city tours months before my departure. One of the tours I took was Mount Titlis. I chose Mount Titlis because it has snow on top of it even on summer and it is not as cold as Jungfraujoch. Finally the day came. At 8 am I arrived at location where we had to gather. It was like a parking lot for buses, very close to the Zurich main station. There is no seat number in the bus. So, the passengers had to get into the bus in a hurry if they wanted to choose the seat they desired. I was lucky to get the first seat on the top storey of the bus. My seat was very strategic to enjoy the magnificent sceneries along the way to the mountain. The classic architecture of the buildings in Zurich was very beautiful. But it was nothing comparing to what I was going to see next. When I was already close to Lucerne, I could see very peaceful green pastures and old style houses with some of them had giant cylindrical containers to keep the cow milk. The bus stopped for a while at a lake before we arrived in Lucerne. The lake was stunning with its calm water surrounded by mountains around it. Then we continued our trip and stopped at Lucerne for about 30 minutes. We went sightseeing in Lucerne and bought some souvenirs there. About an hour later I arrived at Mount Titlis. Apparently I chose the best time to visit Titlis. I went there on July, where it’s summer in Europe. So when I looked around from the place where I stood after I got down from the bus, I could see a breathtaking view of green mountains on my right and a snow covered mountain on my left. Can something get more perfect than this? I am from Indonesia, a country with no snow. Since I was a little girl, I have been very crazy about snow. I really wanted to touch snow with my bare hand and lie on the snow. But that seemed too impossible for me because it was so difficult to get a schengen visa. I really love snow that whenever I watch movie that shows snow in the scene, I suddenly cannot move my body at all, only staring at the snow on the movie, and cry! So, can you imagine how happy I was when I finally stood on Mount Titlis? I took the cable car and rotating cable car to go to the top of Mount Titlis. I stepped my foot on the snow for the very first time in disbelief. I fulfilled my dream about lying on the snow and I could not help myself from crying at that time. It was something that was too good to be true for me. The tour guide only gave 2 hours to enjoy all the things on Mount Titlis. First thing I tried was ice flyer. I sat in the ice flyer only with my friend from Indonesia. It was so fantastic to “fly” above the snowy mountain. When the ice flyer had reached the other side, my friend and I got off and we walked for a while to the place where people play snowtubing. Unfortunately there were so many people wanted the play snowtubing. The queue was very crowded. I almost cancelled my plan to do that, but my heart said that it was “now or you’ll regret it forever”. So, I got into the queue. When my turn came, I slid down the snow and screamed elatedly. My first trip to Europe taught me a lesson that no matter how big my dream is, if I never give up on it and persistently doing my best to make it true, it will come true someday.