Yesterday was a pretty chill day, did my usual hibernation routine and slept in until 12:00 and then got up, brushed ma teeths and ate some german frosted flakes, they are normal frosted flakes just with German writing on the box, I could make some German jokes but I'll hold myself back. No reason for why I told you what I did in the morning, just bored right now so I thought I'd let all of you faithful readers know ... ya know? Good.
Around 2:30 my dad, Richard (in picture below) and I went for a hike, back to Solalex, which I blogged about a few back and included some photos of the cliffs. Let me set the pace for you though first. Richard has lived in Switzerland for 9 1/2 years. Richard runs marathons. Richard hikes for 6 hours. Richard works out every other day. Richard is a FREAKIING man-machine.
I have not lived in Switzerland for 9 1/2 years. I do not run marathons. I do not hike for 6 hours. I DO NOT work out every other day ... though my exceptional physique may cause you to think otherwise - don't be fooled, it's all au natural baby.
Anyways, two nights ago we were having dinner at Richard's house and I - mistakingly - mentioned to him that my dad and I were going to go for a hike in Solalex again while the girls shopped. He said he wanted to come with us - he was even SO generous as to kindly offer to lead the hike, quote "so that we could REALLY see Switzerland" unquote. FML.
"Sure Richard, that sounds GREAT." I enthusiastically said, when what I REALLY meant was, "Are you F'ING serious? You think I'm cut out for that crap? Climbing boulders and stuff ... YEA RIGHT!"
Fast forward to yesterday. My dad and I meet Richard at his chalet, just 2 minutes away from ours and drive to Solalex. We get out the car, me, mowing down some chocolate because I knew I would need the energy. We ended up hiking for about an hour in a half and it was by far the best time I have had yet in Switzerland. We hiked - the whole time - up a hill ... wait ... we hiked - the whole time - up a mountain. No word of a lie, the landscape and ambiance of the mountain was straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies, you know the scene, where Frodo and Sam are hiking up the rocky hill with Golum ... Golom ... Gulum ... I have no clue how to spell his name - regardless, when we started the hike it was all blue skies and birds singing but as we ascended the mountain further mother nature must have become seriously pissed at something in the world because she directed massive, BLACK rainclouds our way. She even teased us - she left just a little circle of blue sky that I desperately longed to expand yet it was quickly consumed by the black rain clouds. By the time these clouds were pouring in and ruining all hopes of survival, we were an hour up the hill, so we had two choices:
1) Hike up the hill even farther to a "refuge" which are little restaraunts/hostels that are scattered all throughout the alps, and hide under the eavestroughes, since it wasn't open
2) Hike down the hill and risk getting soaked and ruining my camera
3) Cower under a rock and cry until the rain went away
I know I said two choices but the third was running through my head.
We were the only humans around for about 3 miles other than 2 foxes that were chasing each other around the refuge's property. We chose option 1 and hiked up to the refuge. As we reached the refuge, I looked at one of the mountain peaks and watched as clouds literally POURED over the tip of the mountain and started filling in the little valley that we were in, it was incredible. I mean, when you are thousands of feet away from clouds they move "slow" (such as the clouds you see from your window) but when you are already 2000 meters above sea level, these clouds move FAST! It was unreal.
It rained for about 20 minutes, which my dad and Richard chose to talk about hockey ... if any of you know me you know that I could care less for such a stupid blog (I may have just lost some readers for that comment ... suck it up though) so I took the time to do nothing and eat chocolate and just hope that this didn't turn into some mishap that would be turned into a Hollywood movie ten years down the road.
The rain subsided and we started hiking down the hill again. Oh - right - how could I forget, let me tell you about this.
What were we clothed in while hiking this mountain? Shoes, shorts, t-shirt and sweater. Half the hike, we were hiking on snow a meter deep - thankfully the snow was packed down pretty hard but again, mother nature decided to amuse herself and some spots of the snow were soft, so we would be hiking along, not watching where we were going, looking at the mountains then BAM one leg would be a meter deep in snow. Fun? No. Amusing to watch others infront of me sink a meter out of nowhere? YUP!
I actually had no issue hiking up the mountain, you know, breathing wise and stuff, I wasn't necessarily out of breath but some others in our group were - let's do the elimination here - if I had no issue, I'm assuming you can guess Richard-man-machine didn't have an issue hiking up the hill, so that leaves ... my dad - he would stop every 30/50 meters and "take pictures", really, he was catching his breath, it was pretty funny at times, this would be our convo:
"K, guys *DEEP BREATH* hold up, just *DEEP BREATH* gonna take some *DEEP BREATH* photos of, rock and stuff" says my dad
"OK dad, hey, why are you breathing like that?" I would respond
"*DEEP BREATH* Breathing like *DEEP BREATH* what?" breathes my dad.
Good times, good times. I love him to death, it wasn't as bad as I made it sound but it was funny regardless.
Oh yeah, there was one part of the hike where Richard turned around and informed us that - while walking on snow - if we fell to our right, we would slide down a hill into a rushing river that was -10 degrees celcius ... no biggie, I can handle that ...
PHOTO ANNOUNCEMENT - below are photos of the view from the hike and then there are two photos taken from infront of our chalet, you can see, from our chalet, where we hiked too - as marked on the photos, so you can understand how high I really hiked.
Today, was pretty fun too. We joined Richard and his family and attended their church in a moderately sized town on Lake Geneva, which on the other side of the lake is France. The church itself was pretty sick, it's a couple hundred years old and is an english speaking church and caters to a lot of people from around the world that work at the Nestle world head offices, which is in the same town as the church. The service was pretty different from what I am used to - coming from a church that has a freaking rock band as the worship portion - to a church that has ... an organ and a lady strumming on an acoustic guitar. It was a pretty serene experience though, just to have a very traditional service - it was fun.
After the service, we took Richard's family out to lunch, since they have been dinner hosts so many times to our family over the last week. After a huge pizza drenched in spicy olive oil, we took a walk through the town, I didn't have my camera for this walk but something super weird happened. We were walking through this square (a city square, not a literal square ... I know some of you were thinking that) and I had this French lady come sneak up behind me and thrust herself infront of me, forcing me dead in my tracks. I tilted my head to the right and gave her a weird look.
She shot her hand out and grabbed my hand and slapped a 2 Franc coin into my hand. I looked down at it. I looked up at her. I looked back down at the coin. I looked over to Richard for help. I turned to her and brilliantly said:
"Um."
I look over at Richard, turn back to the lady and say:
"...Um. What? I dont speak Francois" <-- me infusing my english with random french words to show how incompetent I am at speaking the language. She looks at me like I'm an idiot and says:
"I know what you are saying, take the coin."
The coin was already in my hand and I said: "I did, you just gave it to me. Thank-you?"
"Mmhhmm" she responds and scuttles off. I watched her, both curious and not sure if I should be insulted or not. She thrusts herself infront of another man and hands him the coin, the same profound look of awe on his face as I am sure I had plastered on mine. She then zooms across the square to a man sitting on a bench and reaches into her tupperware container, removes another 2 Franc coin and pushes the newspaper away from infront of the mans face and forces the coin into his hand.
Even now, I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA WHAT ALL THAT WAS ABOUT. I still have the 2 Franc coin, because on it's own it's useless, it can't even purchase me a cafe au lait (coffee). Not sure if I should be insulted but I have my own theory that, since all the other men she gave coins to were good-looking, that was why I got the coin. <-- again, this is my blog and that's what I think, disagree if you like BUT don't go crushing my theories, that isn't nice =)
Hey, guess what? Tomorrow is my birthday - I'll be spending half my birthday in a car, driving to Paris and then the other half walking all over Paris. I should have an internet connection so I'm going to expect love-filled notes from anyone that has me on Facebook - make me feel loved, I miss all my friends back home - you know who you are - and for those of you who may be reading this blog and don't know me in person ... I don't know what you can do - maybe sing Happy Birthday to me to yourself in whatever language you speak. That would be really awesome.
I'll be posting TONS of photos of Paris if the hotel we are staying at has an internet connection and if our converter plugs work in Paris. If I have no way to upload the photos expect a MASSIVE blog Thursday sometime, when we return from Paris.
PHOTO ANNOUNCEMENT -- the very last picture on this page, is a shot of me sleeping, my mom always thinks it's really funny to take pictures of me when I have no clue they are being taken, I don't mind though - it's a pretty funny photo. Now, before any of you go calling me names that are politically incorrect, I am wearing the sleeping mask because the sun rises on MY side of the house and shines directly through the window onto my face at the disgusting hour of 6 am. I don't wear it on a regular occasion ... you know I would admit if I did.
Also, I'm expecting birthday kisses when I get home - you know if you are a person who should give me a kiss or not, no need for me to list you peeps.
Love and miss all of my friends and if I know you on a professional level, I don't love you because that would be "inappropriate", so for those who may be my boss in some way ... "have a good one"
Jason.
This is Jason. Jason is in hibernation mode. Jason likes to sleep. That is Jason's sleepingmask, if any of you watch Gossip Girl, it's just like the one that Blair uses. Why I know that little tid bit if info, I will never tell.
My dad on the left, notice the expression of PAIN on his face and Richard on the right, notice the expression of COMFORT on his face.
This is Lake Geneva, they have these sick chairs inserted into these huge rocks all along the waterfront, such a smart idea.
The is the Bradfords (Richard) who I talked about so much during this blog. We are out to lunch at a really popular pizza restaraunt in Vevey.
View of my hike from my chalet door.
Closer view of the ridiculous hike I did.
This is the view, 20 minutes into the hike.
It's Gollum. Two L's. Valiant effort though.
ReplyDeleteI would have found a rock to hide under and cried until it stopped raining.
I believe your French-lady theory to be correct. Makes me think of something you could do so nobody ever forgets you. Like Dane Cook and smashing ice cream into some young boys face.
Happy early Birthday. I will sing a few times to myself. I will kiss you later.