Published Saturday July 24th, 2004


The Matterhorn from our rental-apartment balcony.

Day one of the family Zermat trip began on Monday at 1000 as we left Wasen and headed for Zermat..

We drove for about an hour and a half until we reached the base of a mountain named Lochberg, i believe. That's what the pass is called anyway, so i assume that is what the mountain is called as well. Heh, amazing, don't you think? Heh, i sure think so. Hrm, at this point, at the base of this pass which is not crossable by road, we drove our car onto these waggons which were on rail tracks. While sitting in our car, the train pulled these rail waggons loaded completely with cars through this long tunnel which lasted for about 20 minutes.

(As i write this i am being distracted by my sister, Andrea who is sleeping right next to me. She is .. uhm.. completely insane. She has lost her mind. I think the higher then normal altitude has killed off all her brain cells due to lack of oxygen and now she has turned into a mindless, dumb, walking.. lunatic.) *reads everything i wrote in the parenthesis to Andrea.* Ha ha. She's fun. Erm, i mean.. Funny.. Funny looking.

Anyways, seeing as i am not focused again-or am i- i shall continue.. Ah yes, while we sat in our car, on these rail waggons, we sat there in complete pitch black as we drove through this tunnel. One could have turned on their headlights, or the lights within the car, but where is the fun in such things? So, for 20 minutes or so, we sat in complete darkness, and so did the people behind us. It was really fun, peaceful and.. soothing in some way. Opening the window every once in a while let in a very unique train/rail-track smell. I love that smell. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. The best way to describe it would be to just smell it. Heh. One can also smell it at train stations. I just love the smell for some reason. Heh, I'm odd. *Andrea talks to herself and her CD player next to me*

Once We exited the tunnel, and drove off of the train we headed down the mountain and were now in a different Canton, or State in Switzerland. Canton Wallis. Quite different then what was on the side of the mountain we had just been on. One side was really, really green and wet, and the other was a lot less green, and a lot less wet. The stark contrast was amusing, in some respect. We drove down to a little town, which i believe was called Steg where we parked and wanted to go to a food type shopping centre, Migors. However, they were closed for lunch-hour, and so was the Migros-cafeteria, and many restaurants as well as Bakeries and so forth. My indecisive collective finally decided on some restaurant to eat at, and there we spent around 90 minutes partaking in lunch and lunch-like activities.

Andrea is stupid, Andrea smells, Andrea is ugly and she needs a bell. Andrea is icky Andrea is sickly and Andrea needs to become a shitty littie bittie.. you're dumb. go to sleep. stop reading this. stupid. hey you.. Andrea.. stop reading this... stop distracting me.. how about you . uhm... turn around.. and.. then.. erm.. close your eyes and.. then.. shut up.. and... then... you should.. erm.... sleep... i don't care if your eyes burn. you should close your eyes and sleep, that way they wouldn't burn anymore. Stop reading this out loud, i know what I'm writing, thank you very much. Andrea giggles, "Ah-hehehehe, ah-hehehe heeeee-hehehehe.." Marco is quite amused. Andrea continues, "Ah-heeehehehehehHEHEHEHeeee..." And then covers her head in her pillow, embarrassed. "Ah-huuu-huuu-heee!" Says Andrea. Apparently she has to laugh like this when she has to be quiet, otherwise she would snort. Forbid. Lets not have any of that sort of nonsense. Like i said before, i know what I'm writing, you don't have to say it out loud again. Thanks, though. Yes, i spent a whole paragraph on you.. I'm glad you're reciting the first sentence, or part of this whole thing. You make it sound so well. Okay now, i really should probably get the rest of this thing done so that we can sleep, at least so that i can sleep, anyway. I don't really care if you sleep. Okay, you do that. Go to sleep. Turn over, as i suggested in the first place, and then sleep. Sleeeeeep. SleeeeeeeEEEEeeeeeep.

Anyway.. Sorry about that. All Andrea's fault. The waitress there had some very familiar features. Besides being quite cute, and quite attractive, as well as sporting numerous variously placed piercing which looked good on her, her eyes reminded me of an old friend of mine, Rachel William's eyes. A sot of deep, kind of dark and somewhat grey blue with a lot of personality and detail in them which i really find attractive. It took me a while to point a finger at whom it reminded me of, but i did eventually.. Fascinating, dontchya think? Ha ha.

After i ate my Walliserteller, or a plate filled with various thinly sliced cured/smoked meats and bread, and my other family members, Andrea, Margret, and Roli finished their lunches, we departed and drove to this town named Taesch where one has to get on a train to get to Zermat because you can not drive up to Zermat. (There are no cars, trucks, and such-like things up in Zermat, and it makes it a really peaceful little town. The drive up to Taesch was beautiful. Windy roads through little towns and villages built on sides of cliffs, and really just interesting and marvellous architecture.. The train ride from Taesch up to Zermat lasted about 15 minutes, was brief and peaceful. Not too many people were in the train, which was also nice. Once we got here, we took a taxi, this electrical powered vehicle, to our hotel/apartment which we have rented for the next three days.

After we dropped off our things in the flat, we headed back into town and did some walking around, and then bought some things to eat for dinner, which we prepared ourselves back at our flat because we didn't want to visit another restaurant again today because we were not that hungry. We walked around for about 90 minutes, and towards the end, we bought some things, as i said.. We returned to our flat, and ate dinner. Cured meats, salami, yummy swiss bread, and so forth. Pretty basic, but still a million times better than something similar in the States.

After dinner, my mom, dad and Andrea played some games together, and i took photos, reviewed photos, and took photos of Zermat, the town, and then stitched them together with Photoshop, all on my laptop which my mom let fall out onto the floor when she opened the trunk door to the rental car we have back when we parked in Steg. (It seems to be fine, though.. heh, good thing.) I was rather tired, but at the moment, am not longer.. Heh, oh well. My mom went to bed, and soon, Andrea, Roli and I also went to bed, and here i am with my laptop, laying in this bed typing this with Andrea trying to sleep next to me. Yes.

I have to say, i kind of understand Grant's paranoia with his car, or rather, over his car. He always worries someone is going to dent it, or damage it, or that something will happen to it. I kind of have the same fear or paranoia for my camera/lenses.. My laptop as well, but oddly enough, a lot less for my computer than for my camera. Kind of annoying, and stressful. It's sort of a painful fear that something will happen to it which will render it useless to me, make it unusable.. And would leave me without any means to take my photographs. Something which i truly love doing. Heh.

Well then, i should sleep now, for tomorrow we have things to do.. And for such things i require much energy and thus, i shall end this entry.


My mom is tired and cold.

* Photos have not been altered, and could probably use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments. Oh well.