Published Saturday July 24th, 2004


Tyson and Raymond playing with a swan while we waited for a boat on Monday.

Wow.. I've really fallen behind with the blog entries. I haven't had time to write since last Saturday. So much has happened since then, I'm not sure that i can remember all of it.. Time is speeding by at an incredible rate, i rarely have time when I'm not doing anything, and when i do, I'm too exhausted to even turn on my laptop.. Well, lets see..

Sunday my extended Luethy family grilled outside by my grandparents flat. My dads sister, her family, my dads brother, his family and my family as well as my grandparents were all present. Some cousins were missing, but other than that, the whole family was there. It's always nice to see them all. Ursula and i always joke around. Poking fun at each other and having ourselves a grand time. Somewhat how I'm with Anna. It's fun, and it makes me happy. By the way.. Ursula is a cousin of mine.. Daughter of my aunt, Rita. Just in case you wanted to know, which i doubt, but i don't care.

Adam, Wes, Tyson and Raymond also came down and ate with us. I left them at some points and they talked amongst themselves in English, and Ursula, and my other cousin Martin listened in on their conversations using their English listening skills.. Ha ha. I think that was about all we did Sunday. The plan was to also go to Bern, but everything there was closed, and we were running out of time, so we did not go.

Monday came along, and was sort f a disappointment. I took the guys to St. Beathus Hölle, or some cave on the side of Lake Thun. We went though the cave with a tour guide and i was really disappointed. I remembered the cave used to be much prettier with nice stalagmites and suchlike.. Instead, the cave was sort of dried out, trashy and just really not pretty at all. It was more of a hole in the side of a cliff with pavement and railing inside and little stupid touristy dragons with floodlights everywhere.. I was really, really disappointed.

So, we left the cave, and walked down to lake Thun, to Sunndlauen, i believe the area was called. There we waited for a bit. Played with swans and ducks and then got onto a boat which took us zig-zag across lake Thun back down to the city of Thun. There, we got on a train and headed back to our flat. I made some plans in the evening for the next day, and then went to bed at some time or another..

On Tuesday we got up at around 0900ish and left the flat by 2230. We went into town, bought some bread and some cured meat and then we started a 5 hour hike along the tops of alps to reach the peak of another alp named the Napf in the evening. We made 2 extended rests during the 5 hours, each about 30 minutes where we ate something and rested a bit. The rest of the time we hiked up and down and some more up and a lot more up. We hiked around 12-15km mostly uphill. When we reached *Raymond hands me a cup of hot chocolate milk, mmm*- When we reached the top of the Napf we were exhausted. We, i guess you could call it "checked-in" to the hotel where i had made reservations for us in the massenlager, or.. mass storage, i guess. I don't know the English word for massenlager. It's just a room, or a few rooms filled with a whole lot of beds, cheap, and not as comfortable as a hotel room might be. We paid CHF 35 each which included the overnight sleeping as well as breakfast. I paid this, CHF 175 for all of us, in the morning before we departed down the hill again.

Anyways, when we got there, we checked in, and laid about a bit, for maybe 30 minutes. Then we went and got dinner, and then returned to the Massenlager where we were the only ones. We all went to bed. I listened to some music and then passed out. We slept between 9 and 12 hours each. Ha ha. A unique experience for the guys, i hope. Sleeping on top of an alp, in a barn. Cows right outside roaming the field in which this barn is located, their bells around their necks ringing. Some rain and thunder during the middle of the night.. We got up at 0530 to watch the sunrise. There was still fog around, and it was fairly cold. We returned to our beds after around 30 minutes and slept another 2 or so hours until 0815 when we went and got breakfast, checked out, paid for the lodging and then descended the mountain down into a creek-valley. We reached the bottom at Mittelnalp, and from there walked for around 4 km to a small little village called Fankhaus where we waited and then got on a bus which we took to another town called Langnau where we got on a train which took us to another village named Ramsei where we got on a bus which headed back into Wasen where we wanted to go. On the bus from Ramsei to Wasen i saw a friend of my cousins whom i have come to know because i've seen them over the years quite a number of times. We chatted a bit and then had nothing to say anymore, it became sort of awkward for me and then Tyson, Adam and i played blackjack to kill time while the bus waited at a train station in Sumiswald for a connecting train. Isn't this all just very fascinating? I think it is! I love how i can get from the middle of no where, no where at all, get on a bus, get on a train, get on another bus, and be back where i started from a day later. Heh. Yes! Good public transportation is awesome!

Heh, so i'd say that within 2 days we hiked and walked around 20 km. Fun. My legs didn't and still don't hurt at all. I'm surprised, but easily accepted. Wednesday afternoon, after returning back to our flat from the Napf after cooking and eating spaghetti for lunch, i got a car from my grandparents, requested CHF 30 for all the guys, and then Tyson, Wes and I went shopping. We spent CHF 176, and our budget was CHF 180. Oh yea. We have a whole lot of food now. It'll probably last negative 2 days. Heh. We're spending about CHF 30 on food every 3-4 days. That's really not that bad. In fact, i think its pretty decent.

Yep.. So, we ate some dinner, we heated up a pre-made pizza and some salad which we got from my grandmas garden. After dinner, Wes and I went over to my grandmas, Wes checked his email, and suchlike. I chatted with my grandparents, looked into what to do the next day, today, and arranged plans. Wes headed back over to our own flat, and i continued chatting with grandparents, making plans, chatting online a bit, checking email, chatting with my parents, and chatting with Andrea a bit. Enjoying their last company for the next 6 or so months..

At around 2230 i went back over to our flat and had some ice cream. Cleaned up some things in the kitchen. Mixed some syrup and water in bottles, chatted with Raymond a bit, and then went to bed.



Some photos from our little trip up to the Napf.


Us sitting around taking our second long break on our hike up to the Napf. We're at some random alp restaurant.


When we said no more uphill we didn't exactly want this steep of a descent, either..


We're going to have to walk back up that road over there.. aren't we? Why yes, yes we did.


Wait for me..?


Down down down..


Good thing we didn't go back this way..


Raymond figures it would be easier to go down on his butt..


Massenlager.. Wes is tired and hungry.. or so he mentioned.


Cosy, no? Horray for 14mm lenses. Boo for not perfectly horizontal tripods.


~0545. It's cold. There is little light. I don't want to increase the ISO on my camera. Tyson moved.


We slept in that barn over there. With the cows. I like cows.


Cows like Adam's shoes..



This Thursday morning i felt rather anxious. At 0836 my parents and Andrea came over and said goodbye to the guys and then me.. I hugged my dad for a long time. Then my mom. And then Andrea. She cried. If i could cry, i would have cried, too. Instead, i cried on the inside. The next time i see any of my family will be in around six months..



Ramblings and rantings!

Heh, it's hard to get some privacy and alone time when living in a small apartment with 4 other people. I need it to be relatively silent and not having people talking to me or around nearby me in order for me to make one of these entries, otherwise i cannot concentrate.. Yeh.

I'm frustrated sometimes because the guys who are here right now at times don't fully recognise that they're no longer in the USA.. When we were up on the Napf, they expected bacon and eggs for breakfast.. One does not generally eat bacon and eggs for breakfast here in Switzerland! Argh. Sometimes when something is not like it is in the USA they pout. This really, really, really irritates me.

The way some of them put some chocolate milk in their cup, and spill some of the powder on the kitchen counter-tops and don't clean it up also extremely annoys me. The way some of them do the dishes with cold water and repeatedly squirt some soap onto each individual item that they wash and then dry the item with paper towels makes me explode on the inside filled with annoyance and irritation. Meh.



Heh, I'm running short on time. More at another time..

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