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Published: July 18th 2007
The past two days we have truly felt like legitimate backpackers. This is mostly because we unwittingly took a train ride and then a bus ride towards the middle of south Switzerland nowhere. We started to get a bit nervous when the bus continued to unload passengers at stops that still weren´t ours.....a gang of tan teenage boys in oversized sunglasses and white tees hopped off, followed by women with brown paper grocery bags overflowing with leafy vegetables and long loaves of bread and still, we sat and waited for our stop until we were the only ones left save a lone woman in a floral housecoat. Finally, we were there, wherever there was, neither of us knew.
We hiked in the wrong direction through a random subdivision where women glanced up from there gardening to greet us with a brief ´ciao´and I know they must have been wondering what in the heck two wrinkly and bewildered american girls were doing roaming in these parts. After crossing a wobbly suspension bridge, traipsing up a few steep cobbled walkways, and tiptoeing across someone´s lawn, we finally arrived at our hostel, in the farthest corner of town.
The place was small...only thirteen
beds, and the couple who owned the place were very friendly, in a peaceful, relaxed, I-just-got-finished-meditating-and-all-in-the-world-is-as-it-should-be sort of way. The place was overflowing with flowers, all sorts of herbs (which we were welcomed to use for any cooking we might want to do), funky metal figurines, giant wood carvings (our favorite was the turtle....see below), and a recycling area. There were lounge chairs in the garden where we could hang out and read. The problem was, Molly and I had each finished our token carry-on novels, and there was only one book written in english stacked on the community bookshelf (in between numerous German and Italian ones). So we decided to swap after each chapter. The other thing was, we were both slap out of cash from paying for our beds, and nowhere in town was there an atm. So we spent our last three dollars on a drink, and ate some perfect apples that had fallen from a tree (I had to restrain Molly from raiding the green-graped vineyards.)
The next morning we walked a couple of minutes through town and hiked a bit into the woods to an incredible waterfall. It was like we had chanced upon it
(although we hadn´t, the hostel lady had directed us there) and it was all our own. No one came the entire morning we hung out there, reading, lounging on the rocks, and occasionally tiptoeing into the icy water. Molly saw a snake on the rocks on the trail out, so we did a funny stomping singing snake dance until we reached the main road. We took the bus back to nearby city that afternoon and being welcomed by traffic and clothing stores and mcdonalds I think we both a little sad to have left our little hostel in the woods.
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mom
non-member comment
Me, me, me!
Okay- this is where I want to go and stay a while! Why didn't ya'll stay longer? Ya'll are such wanderers....hope you continue to "luck up" on more great places like this. Love you, Mom