UPDATES & LOTSA PHOTOS

Alright, there was a day gap in my blogging but that is OK, I believe it was worth it. Let me tell you all about the amazing town I visited yesterday, how my life plans were K.O'd by some random Brasilian dude and how it was confirmed that one day I will move out of Canada for good, date still pending.

Our days in Switzerland are pretty planned out, we have a lot in this country and other countries that we would like to see and experience, so we have chosen to do a day trip every other day and then hike, relax, read, spend time in quiet, or just do half day trips the days that we aren't doing day trips. Yesterday was a day trip. We woke up at 7:00 am to drive two hours to a ski/resort village called Zermatt.

Zermatt is very, very different for a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that Zermatt is only accessible by train. The other, possibly biggerest (I know, biggerest isn't a word but it's my blog so I'll make up words as I wish & if you think about it, biggerest makes sense in this context haha) reason is that Zermatt has no gas/diesel vehicles in the town - they are prohibited. No cars. None. If you live in Zermatt and own a vehicle you leave it at the train station and train it in to the town. Now, I think this is AMAZING! Why is it amazing you ask? Because it forces the people of Zermatt to get off their asses and pick up a bike, put on a pair of shoes, strap on some rollerblades, or hop on a scooter (so many people ride scooters, you know, the kind where you use your feet to move yourself...) to get to wherever they are going.

There are vehicles within Zermatt BUT they are electric and only used for services, such as taxis, deliveries, etc.

Zermatt is pretty interesting for a few other reasons also, it is the closest town to Matterhorn. What? You don't know what Matterhorn is? I didn't either, I was hoping it was some sort of awesome alcohol but it isn't, it's a 4200 meter mountain (see image below). We took a cogwheel train ( a train that runs on tracks AND has a wheel in the middle of each car that hooks onto a little track in the middle of the regular tracks (think of gears in a watch) that takes tourists/skiers/snowboarders/bikers up 3500 meters I believe. The trainride up the mountain was 40 minutes long and each minute was incredible but did not compare to being at the top. Once you are at the top you can see 29 separate mountain peaks ... take that in for a second. I'll start a new paragraph to drill in how awesome this is.

If you know anything about mountains than you know they are HUGE ... as in you can't climb them unless you are a bit crazy and have tons of experience and days and days to traverse (traverse - good word *highfive*) them. SO, to be able to see 29 (TWENTY-NINE) different mountains peaks means you gotta be really high (altitude wise). It was incredible, some of the mountains were in Switzerland, some were in Italy, some were in France and some were in other countries. It was so amazing. (see video). It was also REALLY bright and for anyone that knows me, you know I wear glasses AND you know that if I take my glasses off I can't see anything except faintly colored blurs, I'm pretty much blind. So, I couldn't wear sunglasses, so I had to resort to pulling my hat SUPER low, putting my hood on and then pulling my hook WAY over my head so that the black from the inside reflected into my eyes so I could keep them open longer than 5 seconds. Apparently, I was the only person on the train who didn't have sunglasses ... Below is a family portrait we had some foreign person take for us. (See below)

BLOG INTERRUPTION --> In my first blog post I talked about how it was pretty funny to watch Slumdog Millionaire in Korean but yesterday I heard something I have never heard before. Asian people, directly from China (I'm not being rascist, I know they were from China cause I talked to them) - attempting to speak French with a Chinese accent ... funny? Yes. A valiant attempt at blending into Swiss society? YUP! I talked to one of the Chinese dudes who was taking some hardcore landscape shots and asked him how hard it was to speak French and he compared it to a Canadian trying to speak Chinese ... owned ...

Let's talk about how I had my life plans Chuck Norris'd into oblivion yesterday too. I believe in having goals in life and then having dreams and using the goals to accomplish your dreams. So, without getting to personal and letting you all into my deepest secrets, I'll tell you my two-year goal I had for my life;

To live at home and save money until I had enough to afford a little room in downtown Toronto. (that was summarized)

Now, onto my life plans getting kicked in the balls --> I met this amazing dude yesterday who is from Brasil, I knew his name yesterday but I don't know it today because I forgot it but that's OK, it's irrelevant. He is 31 years old and has been to 112 countries.

ONE-HUNDRED-AND-FRIGGIN-TWELVE-COUNTRIES. If you do the math - never mind, don't do the math, I love you all, I'll do it for you - he has been to 10 countries a year, for 12 years. He started working on cruise ships as a photographer when he was 19, worked at that for a few years and then has consistently been traveling around the world working as a tourist photographer. Is the money great? Nope, not amazing. Does he have much of a social life? Nope, not really. Has he had experiences in his life that he will NEVER forget? Umm ... YES!!!

At the moment he is working and lives in Zermatt. He works at the top of the mountain, where he takes photos of tourists standing with a St. Bernard dog, which is apparently native to Switzerland ... who knew. Now, it's obviously not the kind of photography that he loves to do but it is a means to and end. Meaning, right now in his life all he wants to do is experience the world ... all of it. So, if he can be a photographer in any country that he travels to, which he can, because EVERY country attracts tourists, than he can earn money and travel. What does he do in his spare time? Oh, you know, nothing too awesome, he only snowboards some of the worlds best runs, bikes down 3200 meters of trails, hikes to some of the most beautiful outlooks he has ever seen and photographs everything he can.

My life plans KO'd...

Regardless to say, I now have WAY more to think about - thanks you awesome, good looking, Brasilian dude who has lived my dreams. He even explained to me all his secrets about how he is able to afford to travel around the world. His next country he is going to go to will be Australia, which he has already traveled to, and he is going to be setting up a booth on the beach and all he will do for a few years is photograph surfers and sell them the prints, then when he is done working for the day, he will surf on his own ... I have his card, guess where I will be traveling in a year or two? hehe.

Well, that's all I have to tell you for today, I hope you enjoy the photos below and the words above.

You can expect a pretty surrrious post coming in the next few days.

Love you all - even those who I don't know,

Jason.


Every single building has a different style of door and window than the next building. These are all shots from Ollons, the small town 5 minutes DOWN the mountain from Huemoz, where I am staying.

This is Solalex, a little ski village, this is one of the mountains that surround the valley.

Shantelle had the hiccups for the longest time, so I got all up in her grill with my camera in an attempt to rid her of the hiccups, it didn't work and she kept trying to stick gummy bears to my lens ...

This is Jason Matos ... OBVIOUSLY, you know, just chillin' out on a cow hill, with mountains behind me

Here is that family photo I talked about earlier ... this is how I walked around for 45 minutes, all the Chinese people must have thought I was F'd...

Here's the photo without my Perez Hilton captions...

MATTERHORN - A freaking huge mountain, as you can see.

This is the view that I have after a 10 minute uphill climb from the chalet that we are staying in.

This is the path to the hill that I have to climb of the picture above this one.

This is an ad for Omega watches (watches that cost thousands of dollars and a body limb) that was at the top of the cogwheel train station.

Here is a watch we saw. 79,100 Swiss Francs, 1 Swiss Franc is equivalent to 1 Canadian dollar, more or less. We saw one watch that was 167,000 Swiss Francs ... let me re-iterate ... 167,000 Swiss Francs...

PHOTOS ( a few )

This is Jaunpass, a road that leads out of Jaun, a little German village of probably 300 people. We were 1500 feet at this point and eye level with clouds ... eye level with clouds if you didn't catch that the first time.

Gruyeres - a medieval town, even has an effing castle in it, doesn't get any sicker than that! And you can't even drive through the cobblestone streets unless you live there. This town actually houses the museum of the dude that created all the Alien props and stuff for the movie (AVP, the original Alien movies, etc) which I found SO weird ... You walk through this beautiful, ancient town and then come to this odd statue that reminds you of the movie Alien, then you look into the store and there is all the Alien props ... wow.




This was a sunset from last night, we looked out the window to see the mountains were blue and then the tips were pink, which this photo doesn't show.

This is a mountain top - we were hiking in a valley this morning with a massive stream. During the winter it is packed full of skiers and snowboarders but during the springtime and summertime it's really dead, there was only one or two other couples staying at the little houses that they provide for sleeping in.


Shantelle found a rock shaped in a perfect heart, awwwww (sigh) but she also found anothe rock, a white one, pretty much a perfect ball shape, weighing around 20 pounds which she proceeded to put into her backpack - she wanted to take it home with us, we would have to buy the thing a friggin airplane ticket just to get it home...

That is all for now - expect a completely random post on why I think everyone should listen to hip hop and how it has seriously effected my life in different ways. Weird, yes, interesting? Better believe it!! Gonna go deep on this one!

<3>

May 5

In a country where wine is drunk at lunch, dinner and any other social gathering, where the wonderful chocolate and milk chocolate was birthed, where the only major crimes that you hear of are passion crimes and a country where God seems to have had a creative spurt in his artistry, how can I miss being back in Canada? Walking the hiking trails that are as old and mature as the landscape they cut through, I can only wonder that if I was born in a different life, would I have been a little blonde Swiss boy destined to a much simpler life than the one I lead now?

I feel at peace in this country, a truly raw and unknown peace has overcome my mind and body as all I can bring myself to do is gaze around at a truly different culture and society than what I have been brought up in. Canada is great, don't get me wrong, the free health care has proven itself worthy time and time again.

In a country so rooted in peace that its armed forces will not enter any war but remain neutral, so rooted in its culture that every town, village or city has water fountains, just to maintain evenness throughout and where if you live above a certain elevation your house must be built in the classic chalet style, and where all the land is cared for meticulously, whether it is the farmers tending to their cows, the vinter freeing his precious grapes of thorns and weeds or simply the citizen caring for his own property, everything about this country is clean, all the way down to the graffiit that covers almost every conceivable surface while you drive along the highway.

Life is slower here, more carefree, more welcoming and in return, the land and mother nature awards her caregivers with a majestic landscape that, to North Americans, can only be found in a Lord of the Rings novel or the Discovery channel.

While our life is spent infront of screens, our money spent on fashion and accessories and our time often spent on meaningless activities, the Swiss spend their time with each other, building up genuine friendships and relationships that will outlast the screens, the clothes and the trivial activities. At home, we seem to search for ourselves through yoga, through self meditation, whereas here in Switzerland, you can find yourself whilst looking at the alps or the town that you live in. We wonder why we are confused and angry, why we are fat and never skinny enough and why this person dislikes us but how can we ever sort through all these emotions when we are constantly bombarded by the media?

I feel as I am insulting everything that this country is by simply trying to describe to you through words what this country is. The black upon white that you are reading does not do justice to the beauty that lies before me. So, without further insulting such a magnificent country I will stop typing and simply take the time to do nothing but appreciate the splendor that is displayed.

Bye bye Canada, get off your computers and go for a hike, stop worrying what others are doing and start taking some time for yourself, rip yourselves off the couch and chase a dream. I know, it is only too easy for me to say this right? All it takes is for you to close your laptop screen, to shut off your computer, to press a button on your remote and silence the voices, to tie up your shoes and to walk outside. Phone a friend up, phone an enemy up, make amends, undo mistakes, stop worrying about how others feel about you and focus on how you feel about yourself.

For now, I'm off to play soccer with the local Swiss kids,

Jason.

Pictures will be up tomorrow! Found a free internet cafe in a small town 5 minutes away, so I'll edit tonight and post tomorrow! <3.

DAY TWO

Day Two - 4:45 pm my time ( I am 6 hours ahead of all of you)

So, I have to explain the whole travel thing to everyone. Since we are 6 hours ahead of you, from the time that I woke up in Canada on the day I left to time that I went to sleep in Switzerland I was up a full day in a half. We had to force ourselves to stay awake until 9:00 pm Swiss time (4:00 pm your time). So I was up from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm the NEXT day. FML. =/

Let me explain the area that we are staying in. To drive to Huemoz - the town that I am staying in - we have to drive 1000 meters UP on a road JUST wide enough for two cars and the whole way up the road is hair pin turns, something you would expect to see in a James Bond movie - you all know the scene, where he is speeding along the road in his Aston Martin, just destroying the hair pin turns, then the camera changes its angle and all you see is valley ... thats this road.

Out my chalet window I have an unobstructed view of the Swiss alps, the French alps and one Italian alp. Say alp out loud ... it's a funny word.

We have friends that live in Huemoz, Karen and Richard and their two children. Richard teaches at LaBrie, a school meant for college/university aged kids who want to figure their life out. The town of Huemoz is the HQ for LaBrie, houses that may appear as houses could actually be classrooms, there is no "campus".

Richard is a modern day philosopher. His job is to read a lot, study life and figure out the meaning of life, all surrounded by the most majestic view I have ever witnessed.

I am at their house while I type this out, jacking their high-speed internet, but it seems SO wrong being on the internet while the window to my right gives me a perfect view of natures masterpieces SO I'm going to go ahead and peace out and leave you all to your internet worlds.

Being here has already opened up the simple kid in me, showing me the simple life and I have literally laughed out loud at how fast paced my life is back home, I almost feel bad for some of you that may be reading this right now and who are thinking that I have written to much or that you can't read all of this because you have sooooo much to do =P

And for those of you that haven't reached this point in this blog post because it was too long ... sad.

Miss you all and I can kinda wait to come home and see you all (was about to say can't wait to see you guys) but I can ...

Until the next time I can jack their internet, ciao!!!!

DAY ONE

Post One - Leaving Home sometime around 7:00 your time and who knows when my time ...

Do you ever know what a trip is going to hold before you leave? The anticipation only fosters dreams that leave you restless in the morning and expectations you aren't sure will be fulfilled. Though this may seem like I am looking for the negative in the positive but I have practiced not holding expectations for the trips that I have taken in my life. I seem only to get excited once I pull my luggage through those sliding doors of the airport and take in the scene before me.

What other facility in the world ships around human beings from every location in the world like they are a valued fed-ex package? The airport, more than the trip itself always seems to excite me, it's in the airport that my expectations and dreams for my trip are created through imagining where people in the airport are from, what they do, who they have left behind or what they are running to or from. Take this morning for example, a man in a wheelchair was speeding around the terminal, pushing his luggage cart better than my what might have seemed as drunken attempt to push my cart with the one wobbly wheel that had a personal mission statement to run me into everything but open space.

But, here I am now, sitting in Aisle 24, seat C beside one of the most interesting dudes I have ever met. But let's rewind this story a bit. The plane took off, a new one for that matter, Air Canada decided to step their game up a whole lot. In front of me now is a tiny 7 inch screen where I can watch anything from CBC News to Slumdog Millionaire, which I watched in Korean for ten minutes for kicks, have to admit brown people speaking english off time to the Korean voice is probably the most entertaining ten minutes I have had in 2009 so far.

Beside me is an amazing dude, Miles, for those of you people who like to know everyones name. Miles was born in England, grew up in Vancouver and has been to 60 countries - this dude is living my dream! His story only gets better though, his job is to train tourism employees (like Flight Centre employees) by taking them to some of the sketchiest countries this little world has to offer. How does he get the training to do this? Easy - he backpacks through these countries by himself and learns what to do, who not to talk to, what not to drink and what to drink, what to travel with and what not to travel with (apparently my camera is a death warrant in certain countries ... )

So, those of you that know me, you KNOW I love networking, so I ask for his card, I receive it with promises of beers when I am back in Toronto and some mad discounts if I ever want to travel with him to countries like Bosnia, Iceland, Uganda, Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Ethiopia ... should I keep going or are you jealous yet?!? Thailand, Dubai, Osaka ...

So that brings all of you lovely readers up to date with me -- INTERUPTION -- Miles just leaned over to inform me that if I take my shoes off then my 7 hour and 20 minute flight will be way more enjoyable. News update, I feel like a new man due to that tip, I just went from being uncomfortable to baaaaaallllliiiin <--- that was a subliminal shout-out to J McPherson (love ya bro). But I am going to leave you all now and return to Jim Carrey and Yes Man, I just NEED to know if he is going to get the girl in the end ... Expect a new entry if not multiple ... entries every day and I guarantee a Jason Matos edited photo every day or else I will bring EVERYONE Swiss chocolate as my personal apolgoy. Much love - miss everyone already, now excuse me while I remove this snoring lady to my right off my shoulder ....

Update - 4:02 am Switza-time

I finished Yes, Man and Jim Carrey dies. <-- that was a spoiler alert and now that I think of it spoiler alerts should come at the beginning of the sentence, my bad. So on the plane, as I mentioned, there are these tiny screens that entertain you during the flight and one of the thuper-duper features they have is this interactive map that follows your flight and the whole thing is touch-screen. Those of you who know me, know how stupid little things can bug me a lot - lemme explain to you how I almost went Chris Brown on the screen. To activate the general menu you have to press the menu button a.k.a but-tin <-- big inside joke about how I pronounce words properly and everyone else totally slacks --> anyways, the but-tin is located at the bottom left of the screen about a cm from the bottom. The calibration of my screen is off by a cm, meaning that I cannot click the friggin but-tin, I am TIRED, I am CRAMPED, I am so full of energy at the same time and I can't press this button because for those of you who know, touch screens are controlled through the heat from your skin, and I run out of room and skin to be able to press the button before I hit the plastic around the screen ... so I'm stuck looking at this little animated plane moving agonizingly slow across the large-freaking expanse of blue that is the ocean ... props to Air Canada hahaha.

By the way, everyone should go download/youtube/buy the song Knock You Down by Keri Hilson feat ... wait for it ... Kanye West, that's right ... I danced all the way to the washroom, even busted out the shopping cart move for a few feet, that's a true story, even received a wink from an older lady around the age of 70, little creeped out but I'll be alright. I'll leave you with a verse from the song, here we go:

Keep rockin & keep knockin / Whether you Louie Vuitton it up or Reebok'in /
You see that hate that they servin' on a platter / So what we gonna have? Dessert or **bassy-distorted-voice-that-I-can't-understand**

Update - 8:30 am Swiss time & 2:30 am your time

So we have arrived at the airport in Zurich after a long flight. Have you ever seen a sunrise from 38,000 feet?? I just did and it beats the hell out of a sunrise from the height of Waterdown. Differences in culture are already evident here - LADIES pay attention, it's widely known that Europe is a year or two ahead of us in fashion, so guess what boots are going to be coming into style?! High heeled leather boots that flip down an inch or two at the top and go anywhere from mid-shin to an inch or two below the knee cap. Hurry and order some off eBay or something, you all know you wanna be the hottest thing walking around! I just gave you the inside scoop to be ahead of the game in Canada, don't disappoint, I want to see all of you looking hott in those boots!

Right now, my sister and I are just chillin on a super uncomfortable metal couch apparatus waiting for our car that is about 3 feet longer than a smart car for a three hour drive to Huemoz (WAY-MOS (mos rhymes with toes) which is a village of 200 people.

The main languages in Switzerland are German, French and Italian (EYE-TALIAN <-- another word I say "correctly") and what I have seen out of the airport windows so far is an absolutely incredible view of architecture and SO much green! (trees people, trees)