My home of 4 months.
St. Gallen, Switzerland
St. Gallen, in my honest opinion, is really a retirement town for rich people. Visiting can probably be completed in a day (or even half a day). I concede, after my second proper walk around the old town, that it can be quite pretty. We have probably eaten out in St. Gallen a number of times I can count on one hand because our cooking, aside from being cheaper, tastes so much better!
The one place we do like, though, is the Migros Restaurant. (Migros is one of the biggest supermarket chains in Switzerland) They have delicious and affordable desserts. Also, there are 2 H&Ms in the shopping area, which more than fulfills the girls’ shopping needs. (: St. Gallen has its share of art/stationery shops, affordable apparel and shoes. For some strange reason, clothes are generally much more affordable than food in Switzerland, to Singaporeans at least.
Language.
I am not proud to admit that I gave in to the lazy bug and ponned 9 out of 10 days of our intensive German course during our orientation, and now greatly regret it. I have come to realize how much better it is to just know that teensy bit of local language: it makes locals warm to you much faster. And to just be thickskinned and practise, even if you sound funny at first. So from now on, have to progress beyond danke schon’s and entschuldigung’s!
Snow, and the weather.
In what seemed to be the longest and most schizophrenic winter ever, weather was reasonable in February- we even had a few spectacularly hot days- we saw our first snowfall on the 5th of March (about one month after the previous snow, according to those that arrived in St. Gallen before us). It was incredibly surreal at first: I saw it when I was walking out from school in the evening. I love how elegant snow is compared to the rain: It falls almost silently and doesn’t just fall; it dances and swoops before a graceful landing.
Of course this amazement was quickly overtaken, however, as I was off to Kiruna, as described below, just a few days later. After getting back to St. Gallen, I was happy to be without snow for the time being. Funnily enough, it snowed again mid to end March, I couldn’t go anywhere without my eskimo coat- in Salzburg as well, and right before we went off to Berlin at the end of the month. As we grumbled about how spring seemed to be no where in sight as we experienced crazy winds in Berlin, we walked off the plane in Basel (Switzerland) on the 29th of March to 15 degrees weather. It’s April and the flowers are finally out: I can finally wear my normal jackets again!
Talking about the weather seems like an actual reasonable topic of conversation, and something we do quite a lot, without shame.
Mount Pilatus (17 Feb)
This was the first mountain we visited on our stint here. It is by no means the tallest or most famous mountain in Switzerland, but it seriously was picture perfect. 2.13 km above sea level is definitely impressive enough. It got very windy and very cold up there, but it’s so high up you start to be able to see edges of the earth and the clouds at your level, much like being on an aeroplane.
He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth- the LORD God Almighty is his name. Amos 4:13
Kiruna (7-10 March)
I highlight Kiruna- the northernmost town in Sweden- as this was the most extreme thing (and decidedly untouristy) I ever experienced, and I was half laughing, half open-jawed in wonder in the few days I was there. I did the following:
- Survived -10 to -24 degrees of weather. I still can’t believe I did. Unsurprisingly, the water in the bottle I had kept in the sidepocket of my backpack froze solid. I also waded in waist deep snow. It was deep enough on the first day, then it decided to snow some more on the second.
- Drove a dogsled. Three people to one sled, and each person takes turns to drive. We had to take the dogsled from our meeting point to the camp. It was fun, though the dogs were rather attitudinal on the return journey, and some of us had to run in the snow, pushing the sleigh for the dogs rather than them pulling it! It also gets crazily cold after a while, when your hands and feet start to get numb. We had to keep moving our fingers and toes, with the very real fear of getting frostbite and them all falling off. We were also taught how to strap in the dogs (grab them by the scruff of the neck, lift their front legs off the ground so they can’t run away).
- Chopped firewood (ok, most of the time watching guys chop firewood) for our sauna and barbecue. We had to cut them into proper sizes for each: when we didn’t get it exactly right we were told off by the guy running the camp.
- Ate reindeer meat. It’s supposedly quite a staple in Kiruna. It’s not bad, very tender. :b
- Lay in the snow by a lake with perfectly formed snowflakes falling on my face.
- Was unable to find accomodation for one night in a place at abovementioned temperatures and weather, on a Sunday, where everything is closed (including the train station and airport at night), and still managed to get accomodation that a local dude was renting, thanks to a tip-off from a HK dude on the tour. THANK GOD.
I have a new love for the people of the Lapplands, who have not formalities and niceties about them, made us do everything we were capable of doing ourselves (i.e. the firewood and dogsledding), yet not hesitating to help when we truly needed it. Like Steven, who gave us a place to stay at such last minute notice at a seriously low rate, came to pick us up in his truck from the supermarket where we clueless where we were (note the temperature and that it was still snowing at this point). He even gave us dinner completely free when he saw we were eating biscuits and chips for dinner. Of course, he got us to watch the oven for him when he went to fetch some other people, and later even taught us how to make Lappish bread for the following morning’s breakfast. He even got up at 4am to see us off to the cab. Truly touched. This was also reflected in our tourguide (Henrik) who told us off when we didn’t follow his instructions exactly, but was the one who told the HK guy about Steven. It’s also in the way he teaches his son, who was about ten and followed him on the tour. His son could ride a snowmobile and help his dad move things around and strap up the dogs. I was suitably impressed.
To be continued…
