Sweden, Estonia, Finland Vacation Part 1

We spent the first two weeks of August in Scandinavia, starting with kayaking in the Swedish archipelago and ending with relaxing and little biking in the Finish archipelago.  Torrey took over 1000 pictures so we are going to have to do this in installments.

Sweden - We rented kayaks, tent, cooking gear etc. in a small town/village about 2 hours east of Stockholm.  We learned a few things about the Baltic along the way.  First began with a bit of worrying, we forgot to ask the guy at the rental shop about tides?  Why is there no sea life, is the Baltic completely polluted?  Turns out the Baltic only has very small tides, it is almost completely an inland sea with only a small opening near Denmark.  We figured out that there really wasn't tides after our first night and then noticed all the permanent structures so close to the water.  Also turns out the Baltic is brackish and as salt water sinks, the surface layer is predominantly fresh water.  So this explained the lack of sea life, and the very lake-like look of the vegetation along the edges.  Plus the frogs...

We are very fortunate with the weather, it was nice and sunny, but not too hot or cold for the entire trip.  We had a thunderstorm the first night, but by about 8am it was sunny again and the waters calm.  The water was mostly smooth, but in the afternoons the wind would pick up and make me (Claire) a bit nervous for when we had to cross open water between islands.  We also went on the far side of one of the farthest islands and paddled over/through large swells.  I made sure Torrey knew that I DID NOT LIKE THIS.  However, I think we were probably more safe with the big swells then the occasional wind.  We were never truly in danger of flipping our kayaks, except maybe when getting in our out.  We both agree that this was the best part of our vacation, very relaxing, beautiful scenery, nice weather, and there is something about the water that is very peaceful.  We also ate pretty good for camping too!
Kayaking photos.

We then went back to Stockholm for 3 days, (we spent a half day there on arrival but had mostly gone grocery shopping for our kayak trip). We got the Stockholm card which included museums and public transport:
Here's some pictures from the museum day.

Hiking Mt. Pilatus at our one year anniversary!

Claire and I have been in Switzerland one year as of today!

We finally did one of the most popular day trips from Zurich, yesterday, with a group from IPC: the Mt. Pilatus round trip, going up from Luzerne by gondola (and also hiking up 874 meters of the final stage), and then taking the cog railway down the other side, and then back to Luzerne by boat.  Pictures of that are below.

With one year behind us, I thought I'd do a "best of" / "worst of" summary of what we think of Switzerland so far. Of course, what we miss most is our families, and also our church community and friends at Mars Hill Seattle.

But, considering Switzerland specifically, starting with the 5 best things:

1. People are friendly.  We had been warned that the Swiss are very reserved, but we've not found that to be a problem.  Also, Zurich is full of ex-pats from other countries, so we frequently find ourselves in conversations with interesting people who (for example) grew up in Sweden and then worked in Hong Kong for 10 years and have a girlfriend in Spain but live and work here... 
2. Fantastic transit system. Almost anywhere we want to go at nearly any time, there are good, fast transit options, all in one well-coordinated network.  Buses typically leave from train stations just a few minutes after the train arrives, so you can connect quickly and easily.  Everything is on time, of course. We have the SBB (Swiss Bundesbahn) app on our phones so can easily check schedules and even get tickets on the go.
3. Great health care system, easy to use even in English.  We've unfortunately had a lot of experience with it.  There's also a neat network of "Vita Parcours", each of which is a kind of trail-running + 13 exercise stations with jumping, pullups, rings, and more along the way, so it's easy to stay fit. Lots of people run and bike.
4. Beautiful scenery full of excellent hiking, walking, and biking trails everywhere, wonderfully marked and well maintained.  It's nearly impossible to get lost.
5. Efficient and friendly government services.  Paperwork you'd expect to take hours and days of frustration in the US is accomplished in minutes with a minimum of fuss.

And the 5 worst things:

1. Far too many people smoke.  We put up with the stink of cigarette smoke every time we wait at a transit stop, walk down the street, and even in the evenings at home it blows through our apartment when our upstairs neighbor stands outside for his evening smoke.  It's disturbing how many young people smoke and how much cigarette advertising there is.
2. Eating out and other services are really expensive.  We easily pay three times what it costs in Seattle to eat out, have a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or get a haircut.  Of course, the upside of this is that even hairdressers and baristas can afford to live in Zurich, get three weeks of vacation per year, and the same great health care as everyone else.  But Claire cuts my hair, and everyone bags their own groceries in the supermarket.
3. We can't easily buy a lot of food items here. Jalepeno peppers are a year-old memory.  Mexican food is one shelf of "Old El Paso" products in the supermarket.  Fresh salsa? Forget it.  Hot sauce?  Only Tabasco and Sambal Olek.  There's lots of beers, but they're mostly the same-tasting boring lager style. Ales are mostly imports, and there are no IPAs.  We really miss PCC markets in Seattle!
4. Beyond food, many other products are unavailable or overpriced. There's no Amazon or anything like that for Switzerland, and very little competition, so clothing, electronics, sports equipment, books, and more are overpriced or not available at all.  Internet shopping here is like internet shopping in the US in 2000.
5. Learning German isn't easy here. Our sincere desire to gain some fluency in German didn't even last a year.  The problem is that people's first language is Swiss German, not real German.  So you rarely hear people speaking German. When interacting with Swiss people, when they realize you don't speak Swiss, they switch directly to English.  That makes it hard to practice, and removes a lot of the motivation.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives, and we like living here.  It has been a good year, and certainly went quickly!

And now some pictures of the Pilatus trip:

Half way up Pilatus, where we got out of the gondola and started hiking.

The hike started out easy, through grassy cow pastures

But then it got steep, and stayed steep for a consistent hard climb, 874 meters up

Here's most of the group from IPC we were hiking with

The little chapel is where we stopped for lunch, with great views down both sides of the mountain.

The view from the chapel - the gondola coming up from below, across a huge chasm

The same gondola as the previous picture, continuing up into the clouds

And so did we, more slowly

Near the top, we joined a loop trail around the peak of the mountain which hangs off the cliff...

and also goes through several tunnels

And finally we reached the hotel.  Two hotels, in fact, as part of large complex with restaurants, gift shops, the train station, the gondola station, and full of busloads of tourists.

After a snack we took the cog railway (steepest in the world, they say) down to the lake on the other side of the mountain.

It was less cloudy on this side, and the views were excellent.

We relaxed in the sun for an hour on the way back to Luzerne, a nice way to end the hike.

The paddle-wheel boat had an exposed crank shaft where the huge pistons of the engine were driving the wheels. 

If you find that last picture interesting, here's a video I made...

Another semester finished (almost)

I made it through another semester at ETH, this one was much easier than the first semester even though I took the same number of credits.  The main reason for this was that I wasn't taking physics but also I had two 1-week field courses after I finished my exams and two of my courses just weren't a lot of work, nor difficult.  So this semester I took: Sustainability in Water Supply, Water Resources and Aquatic Ecosystems, Functional Plant Ecology, Conservation Genetics, Ecology and Evolution: Seminar, Disturbance Ecology, Policy and Economics of Ecosystem Services, Evolutionary Biology: Field Course, and Vegetation Ecology Lab: Field Course.  

The only things I have pictures of are my field courses, but they are more interesting anyways.  The first field course was located in Ces, a preserved village in the Italian part of Switzerland.  It was a 2 hour fairly steep hike to the village.  We (all 22 of us) stayed in an old house, there was no electricity nor warm water.  There was running water in the kitchen for cooking and outside for washing.  The toilet (only 3 for the whole village) was a composting toilet.  The village is maintained by volunteers who live there for the summer, mostly young hippyish folk.  It was like camping, sleeping was comfortable but people stayed up pretty late so no one got a good sleep even if you tried.  The food was pretty bland, lots of carbohydrates, and vegetarian, but I did get a lot of vegetables and the coffee was good.  For the work part, we had to develop a project (with proper scientific design), collect data, analyze it and make a presentation.  My group looked at the microhabitats of the alpine marsh violet in a bog.  On Thursday, we ran laptops off of a generator and did the statistical analysis, it was a long day but I learned a lot because I don't remember much of statistics.  The most challenging part for me was that most conversations were in Swiss German, it doesn't seem to be rude here to talk in your own language excluding people who don't understand.  It may be because they are all young.  I wasn't the only one excluded; there was also one girl is Swiss but from the French part and a German girl, neither really understand Swiss German.  We did our project together and hung out most of the week.  I still have to write a report for this class, which I will start working on just after I finish this blog post. :)

The village of Ces.

Sunna outside of the house we were staying in.

The house we slept, ate, and worked in.

Highland cattle and the horizon. 

Ces from the waterfall.

Doing statistics by candlelight at the dinner table, it is the middle of the day but it is dark away from the windows.  

The cook in the kitchen.  

My bed is the red mattress on the floor.

Washing basin on the left, milk cooling on the right. We got 1 heated shower on Wednesday and we also took one very quick bath in the waterfall. 

Carnivorous plant in the bog (Sundew or Drosera sp.)

Collecting Viola palustris for measurement. 

"Measuring" Viola palustris

Fieldwork completed!

The 2nd field course the next week felt like luxury in comparison.  We were in Zernez, near the Swiss National Park (there is only 2 national park in Switzerland).  There we stayed in dorms but we were a group of only 12, and one of the benefits of being unpopular is no one wants to share a room with you.  So my French Swiss friend and I had a room for 8 to ourselves.  Also our group was given the hotel conference room to use both for work and socializing.  That worked fine for me as after dinner which usually last a few hours, I could have a bit of time to myself and go to bed at a reasonable hour while all the young Swiss stayed up.  We also had a 5 course dinner every night and a great breakfast.

The entire class taking a break for lunch. 

The first day we went on a short hike with a few stops for short lectures along the way. 

At the top.

 The next day was in the hotel with lectures and planning our projects, but in the afternoon some of us went to the study site so we could start the field work.  This is what greeted us, my group was looking at tree saplings so we were still able to do what we wanted to do.  A few others were reconsidering their herb vegetation projects.

A little snowball fight before getting to work. 

I guess looking at flowers is still possible...

This is our study site, my group spent our time in the forest straight ahead and to the right. 

The next day the weather cleared up, I didn't take any pictures of our field work because I lent my camera to one of the other groups.  

One of the groups finished working for the day.  

The Swiss military practicing. 

As soon as I finish one paper I have summer holidays!  I am fortunate that I do not have any exams in September as is the norm.  So I have 3 months with no studies.  I'm looking forward to family visiting, our city hopping vacation to Sweden, Estonia, Finland (and hopefully Russia), and many other fun activities.

Mom's Visit

We have a bit of catching up to with the blog.  First, I was very happy to have my Mom visit!  She spent a few days with us before taking a 10-day bus tour of Switzerland.   She then came back to Zurich and stayed with us for the better part of a week.  Some pictures from her visit are below. I didn't take any pictures the first few days (she did but I don't have her pictures).  I gave Mom the grand tour of Zurich from coffee at Spruengli to lunch at ETH.  I would recommend Sprungli but not lunch at ETH, I don't usually eat there but when I do I have eaten at the better of the cafeterias which is slightly more expensive (but still cheap).  However, the food was so salty it was barely edible.  Also, we hit peak time, and it was very crowded, I guess I gave us both the full university experience.  I also forgot how much jet lag takes out of people and Mom didn't really let on that she was almost asleep on her feet.

Zermatt

Torrey and I met up with Mom in the middle of her tour at one of Switzerland's most famous locations - the Matterhorn! I had a field trip on the Saturday nearby so Torrey joined my fellow students and I for the train trip, he continued to Zermatt while I toured "disturbance sites".  Here's a few pictures from my field trip:

Here we are leaving a site where they have been trying to bring back a certain bunting (bird) by improving its habitat.  There are only 7 males left, I like birds and all but I question the logic of this program.  

Here we are looking at a rare orchid, which flowered after they did a managed fire in the area.

We are looking at a burn site, this is a very big deal as forest fires can be a bit problem.  I got the impression during class this was just an example of a bigger problem.  However, it is actually the only recent forest fire, so that's why it is such a big deal.  Not saying that fires are good, but it was just a reminder of how managed small Switzerland is.  

The burn site up close.  

Torrey had a nice day walking around Zermatt on his own.  He had hoped to hook up with my Mom but her group was going up the Gornergrat Bahn before he would arrive.  I think he enjoyed spending some time outside on his own, something he rarely does.  Here's a few pictures from his exploring:

View from the train up to Zermatt.

The elusive Matterhorn.  

Saturday night I traveled to Zermatt and we had a nice evening with window shopping and hamburgers for dinner.  We took a number of pictures with Mom in them but usually with her camera.

Common sight in Zermatt :)

On Sunday morning, Mom continued on her tour and Torrey and I went hiking. We had hoped to take teh Gornergrat up and see the Matterhorn but it was completely cloudy so we chose a hike at lower elevation.  As it was still April, we could only hike so far and hit snow after a while.  We hiked about 30 minutes in the snow, it was pretty easy going as it was fairly compact.  Despite not being able to see the Matterhorn the view across the valley was still spectacular and the weather cooperated (didn't really rain).   We don't have any pictures of our hike as we didn't bring our cameras.  Again out for hamburgers for dinner.  I had a Zermatt burger, with bacon and cheese!!
It is sometimes helpful to wake up at 6am even when you are on vacation, because that is when we got to see the Matterhorn (me for the first time)!  It began to cloud over and by about 8 you could hardly see it anymore.  We will have to go back to Zermatt in the summer when the clouds are a bit more cooperative.

The following Friday Mom returned to Zurich and then spent six days with us.  Saturday we went to BEA expo in Bern, which is very much like the PNE with animals, food samples, and people selling all kinds of stuff (we bough a portable BBQ).

A bunny-hop!

I have never seen anything quite like it!

Sheep

Cows

Sausage!

They had this amazing display made of vegetables and other local products, that is grain in the foreground, also wine, rapeseed oil and honey, it sort of looked like a map.

Claire sampling whey.

Pants wrestling Schwingen. 

 Just in case you are not up on your Swiss traditions: Schwingen.

Fancy garden furniture displays. 

Monday morning I had to do a presentation and attend a seminar so she relaxed at home.  But we all met at Google for lunch, Mom experiencing Zurich public transport on her own for the first time.  She was an expert by the time she left.  Tuesday and Wednesday mornings I had class so she took in the local museums.  Tuesday she went to the Kunsthaus (art museum) which she really enjoyed, Wednesday she went to the Swiss National Museum which she described as dark and boring. (It is dark but I didn't think it was boring).

Thursday I took her to the airport.  I was sad to see her go as I really enjoyed having her here.  It made me homesick and wish I could see everyone again.