Gere

...is the name of a incredibly tiny village. It consists of about roughly 6 huts or so, but look for yourself:

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Its claim to fame is that one of the huts used to be the retreat of Dr. Bircher-Benner. The inventor of the Birchermüsli. Oh yeah. Not too bad ey?
Well, and this is the place were a friend of us, with good connections, has access to a hut. It comes complete with running cold water, a stove and all the crockery/cutlery/whatsoevery that you need to hang out for a couple of day.
Already the way that takes you there is spectacular: up to the Gotthardpass, with the famous church of Wassen (that's another story that will be told another day), Urseren, Furkapass, the whole shebang. And if you are lucky, your friends even pick you up at the trainstation of Oberwald and bring you up to Gere. And I tell you, its spectular! Meadows full of alpine flower, honest old-fashioned farmers making hay and smiling at you (and they will also smash the window of your car if you don't have the permission to use their road, we had the permission), marmots galore playing in the sunshine, a well with ice-cold water (our bathroom for the next three days) and finally, the hut. Two tents, ready for those that want to be even closer to nature, steep mountain on all sides and a view that contains not a single hint of civilisation. The beer is already in the well, nicely chilled, there is red wine (Dole, from further down the valley), a selection local cheese, the local rye bread with nuts, we bring some cake. Heaven.
It is incredible. It takes roughly 2 minutes and you are completely relaxed and nothing else is important than just the here and now. As Andy commented: "...and the things you have to do are instinctual. The reward is immediate. You don't HAVE to do do anything. I can see how god is created in these places."
The next day is 1. August, the Swiss National Day. And the weather is bad. But we are fiercely determined to have a BBQ. So we go and collect some stones, set up a fireplace and after a little bit of fiddling a nice fire is burning. As you can see, we really took care of the fire and were rewarded with some nice steaks and sausages. And you get thoroughly smoked. Back home it took two showers to get rid of the smell! But who cares? (well, the people in train back maybe did). We served the meat with potato salad, some fried veggies, oh my god, I love food. And up there, in Gere, it all tastes better!
Every morning you have to fire up the stove (another moment to catch some smoke), which is a little bit tricky and really something for boys (i.e. for me), cook water for the coffee, move the large rock to access the "fridge" outside of the house, cut some cheese and bacon, warm up some more to wash the dishes, maybe fry some eggs... Funny, its like normal life, I guess, but its fun. Even washing the dishes is an event.
Later we did some hiking, playing in the stream (building dams, breaking down old ones, flooding empty beds, watching the water finding its new way, they had to drag me away after two hours).
We will definitely come back. Did I say that one of the huts there is splendidly renovated and refurbished? 700 Swiss francs per week, place for 6 people. I don't know the phone number...

Yodeling (for Craig)

Yodeling is a kind of singing that is really abundant in all the countries that border the alps: Austria, Germany, Switzerland. A yodel sounds strange - and strange it is indeed. There are many misconceptions about the act of yodeling and its time to clarify this.

Yodeling is a fusion of two distinct types of human noises that served two different purposes. "Jonen" is a low-pitched sound that has been produced by the "Landsgmeind", the coming together of people from a village or a community to discuss political issues. If somebody has said something that everybody agreed with, people made this noise. The word "jonen" is also related to the word "jo" which means yes in the Basel dialect.

The second part of the yodel ist the model ("m-au-del"). Which is derived from another communal tradition: young men at the age of 18 come together to sing about how their favorite girl should be like. Again, it is connected to the verb "to model": the men hope that their wishes materialize.

But of course, this is long, long ago. About 500 years. The yodel itself has developed into an art form. Initially, however, it was a serious profession. It all started with an accident. Just around that time when yodeling emerged in the communities in the swiss alps, the reformation took place in Europe. People abandoned catholicism and the protestant church was on the rise. Protestant churches emphasized the good side of christianity, its positivity. This created a demand for artists that were able to contribute to the decoration of newly built churches, and coloured glass was very imporant. Windows of all churches were graced with pictures made of coloured glass. Still a widespread feature in many churches. Have you every tried to cut glass? Especially with the low quality glass in those days, it was impossible to get the necessary shapes to construct the biblical scenes in the windows. However, glass that is shattered with ultrasonic soundwaves splits in regular pieces irrespective of its quality. A technique that is still in use today. And this was realized early on. When several people yodel together, the interferences can easily be controlled by experienced singers to reach extremely high frequencies. And so it was the yodlers that helped to create those windows. Not a coincidence therefore, that yodeling is often done during mass (see the picture).

As with many things in Switzerland, the yodelin was perfected. Still nowadays there are contests were people attempt to shatter glass by yodeling according to predefined shapes ("Stücklijodle"). Or they try to focus the sonic waves to burst bottles ("Bierjodle"). Especially among younger people the bierjodle is famous. The loser has to drink all the beerbottles that didn't burst.

There is also a sad story that goes with the emergence of yodeling. It concerns the non-existant Swiss forest. I guess you don't know that Switzerland has basically no native forest left? That we actually import the wood to build cuckoo clocks? Here you go. In order to produce all the glass for the church windows (and even more was produced because it became a big export industry), many trees were cut to melt the glass. In fact all the trees.

This is also the reason why the standard Swiss army knife contains no saw. To protect our forests. And there is also the hypothesis that only after all the trees were cut people began farming and the cows the give the milk for the Swiss milk chocolate might never have existed hadn't there been the yodeling and the glass.

Strangely enough this story is rarely told. Althoug every child in Switzerland learns it. Maybe because there is too much negativity to it. Well, now you know.

Surprising Esther

Esther had no clue. Nada. Zilch. She thought her two siblings take her out for a siblings-only day. Hiking. How great is that... She arrived in Switzerland just the day before and now hiking. Jetlagged hiking that is. But siblings are siblings, and so she went.

What she did not know: They have invited lots of her friends. The old ones (meaning pre-NZ), and new ones (those that she met in NZ and who happened to be in Switzerland now). They set up tables and benches in the garden, fired up the BBQ, had salads, meat and drinks ready, balloons, smarties on the tables, the whole shebang.

So we were all there. Hiding behind the house, they lured Esther into the garden with some silly excuses... When she saw all the people, she nearly fainted. It took a while for her to recognize the faces. It was funny, she knew them, but then again she couldn't put it together.

All our friends have changed a little bit. Suddenly there were little kiddies with parents where there were couples before, new jobs, new homes, lots of gossip and news that had to be exchanged. It was a wonderful afternoon. We all sat there, enjoyed each others company, talked, laughed and arrived a little bit in Switzerland.

We have a home

Wooahh, that was a hectic Wednesday! We had applications running for three flats at the same time, and, of course, we had our number one. I honestly had no idea what our chances were and therefore we tried our very best: we scanned the applications the same evening we saw the flats and e-mailed them to the landlords right away. Then I had to go to Basel, my old hometown to get the paper that shows that I am financially more or less alright, I think I wrote about that. 17 Swiss Francs (about 20 NZD) per paper. And of course they all wanted an original, no copy... Well, there is nothing you can do. And its all for a good cause.

And then, waiting... A day later I called one of the landlords under the pretext to check whether the letter has arrived. And to make it very clear how super-interested we are in the flat. Was that a good idea? I was not sure... I had the impression he was slightly annoyed. Oops.

Two days later I had an e-mail in my inbox: We had flat number 3 (on our personal hitlist) for sure. All we had to do was say "yes". Today. Dammit! The others would tell us in two days, should I let this one go and gamble or rather take number three but have it for sure? Esther! I need your help! But Esther was far away and when I finally reached her, she was as undecided as I was. Should I call the landlord of number one and ask him to hurry with his decision? Call the guy again?! Could be the safest way to loose the top flat. But then again, I had to know whether we were at least still in the game. I decided to risk it and called the guy. I was all apologetic and told him right away that I was no stalker at all and explained the misery that I was in. He was very understanding. Phew. We were among the top 2 for flat number 1. Excellent. Actually, he said, we were his favourites, but he still has to check whether the income that we claimed to earn was correct. Seriously, that's how they do it here! I raced to the secretary of our group and told her to call the guy pronto. Done. One hour later my phone was ringing: we got flat number one. Yes.

We will move in July 1. And yes, we have a dedicated guest room. For free.