ALPINE VIEWS

Julia has returned from Africa! My sis is tanned and won’t stop babbling about how beautiful and crazy her trip was. She spent a month in Sudan, Khartoum, where she worked at a local hospital. From there, she travelled to Tanzania, where she climbed ontop of the Kilimanjaro before spending her last couple of days in Zanzibar.
First thing she said when i met her was: ”DO YOU HAVE A SHOWER?!”, umm no sis, i havent showered in two months.. ”Do you have a towel?!”, umm no, i don’t use towels, since i don’t take showers. ”Do you have sheets?!”. Yeah, nice to meet you as well, Cro-Magnon girl. Anyway, we went to the supermarket, and Julia bought everything imaginable. Cravings, i guess.

Myself, i spent my weekend in Annecy.
It was super, superduper. Annecy was a beautiful town by an alpine lake; the old centre had a little river trickling through. The girls had prepared a picnic basket which we chowed down by the Lac d’Annecy. We spent the rest of thursday walking around and having a beer by the river.
As everybody knows, there is nothing like being shown around by the locals.
Mathilde was the best of hostesses. She drove us around everywhere in her violet WW Polo (french women behind the wheel is no joke my friends). And when we were tired, and decided that a siesta was in order, I would wake up to realize that Mathilde was cooking. I had the priviledge to have tartiflette (potatoes, Roblechon cheese, onions and bacon) and raclette (mmm... strangely, with the same ingredients as tartiflette). I also must have learned more french in five days than during the past two months.
Our violet steed took us to Chamonix and Geneve as well. We visited the bars in Chamonix (90% tourists, of which 90% swedish and british – jeez..), and had a sunny terrace lunch at the Chambres 9. Geneve, then, was something different. Most opulent place – ever. Porsches everywhere, the only stores were Channel, Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, Philip Patek... People were clothed in things i’ve never seen on anybody in Helsinki. The skirts in the windows ranged from 200e-to 5000e dresses (shit you not). I felt sorry for the couple of beggars i saw on the streets. The universal Mcdonalds index: a meal was around 9euros. Bizzarly, my dad told me that Switzerland boasts one of the biggest immigration populations (%) in europe, as well as intravenous drug users and HIV-positives. I wonder where those people are. Anyhow, Geneve was too rich (though beautiful), you got this strangely out-of-place-feeling.

Definitely the best part of the trip – in addition to the raclette – was when Mathilde showed me her parent’s house in the country. We climbed up ontop of a mountain, and saw nobody there. A huge view opened up, and we laid in front of a cliff and discussed this and that and almost everything.
Merci Mathilde!

A couple of weeks back, Helsinki-Help-Anni visited me here for a couple of days. We toured Paris, and as always happened, we walked too much. Anni, like most people, fell in love with Paris. Its nice to have friends over – it reminds you that they exist, back home too.

Pace.