I guess its time to dust off my formerly languishing blog to document my most recent adventure - a brief jaunt to Geneva, Switzerland to work with the World Health Organization. One Ms. Amy Krista will be joining me on this trip, so now we can both be coined "slightly crazy!"
I flew in over the Swiss Alps on August 31 - it was a breathtaking sight!
Since that time, I finished up my last few days with CRR (pause - moment of silence) and moved in temporarily with an adorable Portuguese couple and their two month old - FUN!
I went on my first Swiss Alpine adventure this morning. I ascended the summit of Mont Saleve, all 1380 meters of it. Yup - bottom to top of that bad boy.
I was feeling pretty confident at the beginning, but then I soon realized that I would be walking straight up on loose gravel, without sign posts, the entire hike. Good times! I was also put to shame by a silver-haired granny who dusted me mid-mountain. There was not even a moment for a proper "Bonjour" greeting. 
I had a few epiphanes during this mountaineering exercise: 1) a compass would be nice; 2) a camel back filled with ice cold water would be nice; and 3) some French language skills would be nice. Needless to say, I will move forward with begging Amy to bring said items in her overstuffed suitcase and I will hit up some language classes.
Huffing and puffing, I lost what little breath I had left when I saw the insane view! WOWEEEE!!! No wonder everyone leisurely took the Gondola up this steep crevace to picnic on the side of the sunny mountain.
I proceeded to whip out my leatherman and reach back to my 21-year-old cheapy self to manufacture a slightly soggy bread-cheese-tomato sandy for lunch. I stared at the sky and watched hangliders float above me. The Swiss got it going on. 
As a bribe to get myself to not whimp out and take the gondola back down the mountain, I headed toward the snack shack for some Toblerone - (PS YUMMY). Little did I know, I had crossed over into France and I needed a different currency. They happily obliged by giving me a crappy exchange rate for my Swiss Francs and I paid 6$ for the candy bar. Ummmm...
A few hours later, I found myself back at the bus stop, complete with jelly legs and thankful to the Almighty that I survived the trek down. It was not pretty folks.
Cest la vie! Until next time...
PS - I think I will take the Todds up this route.
8 comments:
AWESOME pics, boo! I might bring the Camelback, for the right price... xoxo Aes
* Ames
Button is sitting on my keyboard and helping me type... xo
You're hard core, dude! Beautiful shots, and it's nice to see the ol' blog up and running again. Looking forward to reading about more adventures.
I loved reading your blog! You can believe that ol' Mont Saleve will be a gondola ride for this Todd! Loose gravel and straight up/straight down just don't get it.
The photographs were wonderful, especially the one of you looking out over the mountain scene.
Thanks, ALL!! Unfortunately that photo is not of me...but a young girl. I guess Clara does not know I chopped off all my hair :) Tee hee!
WELCOME to our Swiss mountains - isn't it great fun after a strenuous hike to enjoy the hard earned breathtaking views on the summit? We'll do it together next time :-)
Awesome! Thanks for posting!
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