Day 10

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25611914.post-1154378467135592892006-07-31T22:40:00.000+02:002006-07-31T22:41:07.136+02:00Day 10Sunday, July 30, 2006 Today rocked hard. A large group of the scouts went canoeing down the Aare river, and another large group went on a train ride to the Matterhorn mountain, Switzerland's highest mountain. I was on the canoeing trip, and because I can't be two places at once, I don't have info on the Matterhorn trip, I'll try to get info on that later, sorry, I try. Canoeing We woke up at about 6:45 for breakfast and rode a train from the town of Kandersteg to the city of Thun (pronounced "tune"). It is there that we found Ghettoboard(TM) version 3 in a pretty rundown and grafiti'ized area, if you know what a Ghettoboard is, you will find this funny. We met our guides and did a quick safety brief. Then, get this, we inflated our canoes. Inflated! It was craziness, I've never seen inflated canoes in my life, and these ones were just great! They had seemingly double the bouyancy, and John and I withstood many attempted capsizings. So here's what we did on the canoeing trip. We went out with a bunch of German people who knew minimal English and struggled to valliantly to speak to us. Eventually this struggle degraded to... war. War on water, great naval battles were had by splashing water at enemies at top speed with the aid of the canoeing paddles. It must have looked funny to the locals bathing on the sides of the river to see float-by boat battles with people shouting in three different languages at once. We rode through the Swiss countryside and saw everything from post-modern urbanization to open fields and mountainous waterfalls. The water was insanely clear, as is most water in Switzerland, and the bottom had nice smooth rocks lining it. Locals went to the river to bathe and enjoy just like an American would at the beach. One of the strangest things I've ever seen occurred when we were boating in to Bern: people of the city would go up the river and jump in, they'd allow the river to take them down like a "lazy river" for about a mile, then they would come out of the water and walk upstream on a path next to the water. I saw thousands of people in skimpy bathing suits walking up this path in a mass exodus to just jump back in to the water, the craziness made perfect sence after a while, because it's quite hot here, and Switzerland is a landlocked country. We had a blast on this trip, but I don't have and photos because there's no chance that I would take my camera with me in the water. Conclusion SUNBURN!!! That's all I have for now. Cheers! ~Dan Note: Keep the comments coming! No snow, but sleet and cold rain, it rocked. Some 1018 hikers also got hit by hail in the mountains a few days ago. I know the posting is a day late, but I will have the canyoning and International BBQ that we did on the 31st up tomorrow morning (if I get a chance). Just a few days left... It's a shame that this amazing trip is finally winding down. I'll have flight details soon.BSA Troop 1018noreply@blogger.com