Goodness, Appenzell!

Here are some pictures! They’re from the Appenzeller region (known for cheese, cows, and general Swissness) of German-speaking Switzerland. Sorry for the lack of text! This would be the trough of my creativity biorhythm.

But I would just like to mention one thing: cows have now become one of my favorite animals. They’re just so darn cute, not to mention curious and peaceful! One of the best moments of being up there in the mountains was hearing the hundreds of ringing, clanking trichels (cowbells). It truly is a sound from heaven.

Seriously, they’re just awesome!

After about 45 minutes of walking from Wasserauen I finally reached Seealpsee. (Beautiful place with a seemingly redundant name…it translates to Lake-alp-lake if I’m not mistaken.)

Møøøøøøøøøøøøøø…….Hello, ladies!

Leaving the scenic valleys of Seealpsee–I was feeling ambitious that day and decided hike up the mountain to Ebenalp.

I have to come back to discover this valley…it undoubtedly holds some hidden treasures. There was an advertisement for a molke-bath that was quite tempting.

There were some amazing flowers to be found in the forest…

…including this one! I have never seen a flower like this before in my life…anybody knows what it’s called?

Coming out of the forest, one arrives at Altenalp, halfway between Seealpsee and my destination–Ebenalp. Good thing too, I was running out of water! To give you an idea: this was the only building/sign of civilization for about 30 minutes’ of hiking distance in both directions. A bit reminiscent of a space station on the moon (if they had one).

There was a farmer working hard outside. I asked if I could have something to drink, and he invited me inside and showed me the menu. And that was when I discovered the greatness of molke (also known as whey).

I wonder how he got all this stuff up here…I also wonder if he was born/grew up on this farm. I had a bit of trouble communicating in Swiss German, but it was fun. In the end, I bought some homemade Alp cheese off of him.

And he had a goatpen! This has been a farm animal field day for me.

And speaking of fields: at long last, after three and a half hours of hiking, I reached the top of Ebenalp! I really love this country from the bottom of my heart.

Norwegian Summer

Hallo! I’m checking in from Horten, Norway, where René and I are staying for a couple of days.

I had written out an entire blog entry last week before we left for vacation, but unfortunately it got deleted, and this has been the first opportunity I’ve had where I could really sit down, focus, and write. (Well, not entirely true…more like the first time I’ve been in the blogging mood.)

As mentioned, R and I are on vacation in Norway. We had just come down from four days in the Lofoten archipelago, to the north of Norway. But of course, I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking:

We stayed in a renovated fisherman’s cottage (rorbu) at Valen, on the edge of the town of Reine and near the island Sakrisøya.

Here’s a view of our rorbu from the side: it’s the one to the right.

Being next to the water, we had a great view from our window and patio/deck.

There was a lot of fish (tørrfisk) hanging near our cabin.

But where were the heads?

A little further down the road, well…we found them.

Shark heads too!

We walked to Sakrisøya to the east…

…and Reine to the west.

And no matter where we went, it was beautiful.

After a long stroll, it was nice to come home and relax a bit.

And each night, we were treated to a beautiful sunset out on the deck. (The sun set at around 10 PM here!)

Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves immensely!

So now we are down in Horten, with my Norwegian family. It’s been a lot of fun showing René my life here. It’s also the first time that I’ve shown anybody from outside the AFS network Horten, and Norway for that matter. In addition, we’ve spent the last two evenings in Pappa’s home brewery sampling his various batches of beer. (My favorite is hveteøl, or wheat beer.) Fun and tasty!

We still have two days here, and while tomorrow’s plans are uncertain, we will definitely be having the usual Pizza Night on Friday, as well as celebrating Mamma’s birthday. And now, I should get some sleep so I have enough energy for tomorrow. G’nite!

After a year, I finally did it!

I saw the Matterhorn!

We woke up at 6 AM to catch the first train out of Wil. That’s right: 6 AM! Despite being such a small country, you’d be surprised how long it takes to go from one end of Switzerland to the other. The train from Lugano to Basel takes five hours—one way. Luckily, the ride from Wil to Zermatt only takes four…

We had to make several transfers: at Zürich, Bern, and Visp. But our sleepiness shortened the length of our journey, and the scenery made what time we spent awake a pleasant one. By noon, we had finally arrived via the Glacier Express (what a cool name for a train) at the foothill of the Matterhorn: Zermatt.

We took the Gornergratbahn up to the mountains…

og der fantes én av de vakreste utsynene jeg har noen gang sett.

And we enjoyed ourselves to the fullest.