Cosma is one year old! And to celebrate her presence in our lives, the decision was made to go to Switzerland, to Val d’Héréns. The original plan was to backpack through mountains and valleys, sleep in a tent the whole time and blend in with nature, but the reality was quite different. 

And for several reasons: 

• I forgot my hiking boots in Prague. So my mom had to send them to Berlin, but unfortunately it took DPD 5 days instead of 2, so they arrived late. So I had to buy new ones. But in the end I am glad for them because they are more stable than mine. They cost 270€, which is officially my most expensive pair of shoes and probably the most expensive piece of clothing I own. But I learned from that choice at least what to look out for when choosing hiking boots. 
• The fox ate ALL of my food supply! That hurt a lot because I had been so careful to bring lots of chocolate, bars, nuts, dried fruit, etc. and it was ALL gone within the night. The next few nights I was pretty paranoid and when the foxes came again, I was a little worried. It was actually the first time I’ve been this close to wild animals trying to “rob” me. I still tried to find that food in the nearby caves and fox holes, but unfortunately to no avail. There were only wrappers from old chocolates of previous visitors to the cemetery.
• There was a lot of snow on the mountains. We had new crampons with us, but the weather ended up being pretty bad, so we didn’t even use them. Or the sections with snow were short.
• It was raining. And it was cold. A lot of it. I don’t think I’ve ever frozen in a tent like I did here on that vacation. And on top of that, my mattress broke, so it blew out. I guess we were all cold. Even Cosma looked pretty cold and wet in the tent. But it was great to sleep with her. Very cute. 
• (Almost) everything was still closed – restaurants, lodges, treks. The season doesn’t officially start until mid-June and we arrived just before that. 
• My PMS – I always seem to take a long time and don’t have as much energy. But that was more of a secondary reason. 

Despite all these complications, it was a great trip because it was the “first time” with Cosma. The first time sleeping in a tent together, the first hikes together and also the first time on a train for so long. First time wearing a backpack and first time spending so much time together. 

ANZÉRE

The journey from Berlin to Zion took around 12 hours. We had to change trains twice, but surprisingly everything went very smoothly and without any problems. Cosma was quiet, which neither of us expected. From Sion we went to Anzére – a tiny village that probably serves as a ski resort in the winter. It reminded me of the villages in France that I used to go skiing with my mom. 

When we got to the apartment, Cosma almost jumped out the window. I was a little shocked. In the evening we went for a walk, but a very minimal walk because it was cold. I wore my Cumulus Down Jacket for the first time. The next morning we went for a walk, it was beautiful. We bought a croissant au chocolat and a normal butter croissant and then worked. It was more just Michel working, I was tired and trying to sleep.  Michel said he was glad I was finally allowing myself to rest when I needed it. Cosma was in bed with me. In the afternoon we went for a hike to the cable car station. The weather changed many kinds – rain, wind, sun, heat, cold. At the top we had Huel – Pasta Bolognese flavor. Cosma was carrying her backpack. 

AROLLA

We moved on to Arolla where we just reached the campsite and walked to the river and town. We met for the first time the owner of the campsite we were staying at and her dog. We had cider at a single kiosk and then walked to the Blue Lagoon lake. The cool thing about the trail was that we walked all the way through the woods, but we also had a great view of the high mountains that surrounded us. There was hardly anyone at Blue Lagoon. Kosma had an insane amount of energy (unlike me). That night a wild fox from the forest ate all the €60 worth of food I bought. All the candy bars, nuts, dried fruit, etc… it was kind of my only salvation and something I was looking forward to. But then again, I thought it was a sign for me not to get so dependant on food. And that I should just let things go and be okay with the present and what’s being happening to me right now. During the course of the trip, the foxes further stole Michel’s t-shirt and bag and scattered things around the tent. I was a bit scared of them haha when they came and we heard them just next to us behind the tiny wall of the tent. It was quite funny that when the foxes were around our tent, Cosma didn’t even notice them and slept peacefully So we definitely can’t rely on her in case of protection. 

CAMPING 

We ended up in a really beautiul campsite run by two Swiss young people who just gave up on their office jobs and decided to run that campsite. I loved their dog and Mich loved the tattoos of the guy. The girl looked very pretty with her grey hair. And I also made my most favourite picture there! Of Cosma and their dog. 

 

MONT COLÓN

The next day we went to the Mont Colón glacier and met a woman who looked very sad and worried about her husband who was lost. We were all worried about him and tried to call him. It looked like he was lost in the snow somewhere. We finally got through to him and he was completely fine and almost seemed like he didn’t care what his wife thought. I felt a little sorry for her if she had such a thoughtless husband. Then we even met him and he didn’t care where his wife was. He just told us something about St. Mary (Madonna), whom he had gone to take a picture of. When we went upstairs, it started to rain and suddenly it was quite cold. So we decided to go back and after that trip he literally gave me a mental breakdown that lasted for the next few days. It’s actually still happening to me. I feel like I’m in some kind of loop. I feel like I’m not adding anything to the world. That I’m not creating anything, that I’m just consuming but not really giving anything to anyone and not changing anything. I’m crying in the middle of this big valley and if I could and would disappear somewhere, I would. Then we went back to town and I was looking forward to having a super strong Cider, but the shop was closed. So we went to the only restaurant that was open and I had two ciders. I suddenly felt a little better about how drunk I was. Then it rained terribly, so we got on the bus, freezing, saying we were going to Coop for chips and some other snacks. On the bus, however, we found that we didn’t want to walk back for 4 hours in the dark, so when we got off the bus at the final stop, we got back on within 3 minutes. Mr. Driver probably thought he was done for the day, but we made it difficult for him. His friend, another bus driver, laughed at him.
When I said I wanted to sit somewhere warm, Michel said “I got you covered” and found us a restaurant “on the way”. When we got out in the rain, of course he found it closed. I had seen it from the bus, but Michel said it was a different restaurant. Which I was clear from the start that it wasn’t, because the village had like 3 houses total, so there would hardly be 2 restaurants. So we drove back to the campsite in complete darkness and rain for about an hour. I just wanted to cry the whole time. Then I went straight to the shower and just cried. I felt so bad that I just went to my sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep, hoping that the day would end as soon as possible. Cosma looked pretty devastated, too.