Girl's nights, summer breezes and well....it's kind of a funny story!

I had my beloved friend Aryan here visiting me from Sweden this weekend....a great choice in terms of timing as the weather was really amazingly beautiful!! We've been getting lots of sun on our noses, dipping our feet in the lake, eating lots of good food, enjoyed quite a few ice creams, breakfasts, popcorn and numerous episodes of Cougar Town (seriously girls!! Watch it!! ;)), accompanied by plenty of laugh-out-louds ;))

The view from half-way down Mont-sur-Rolle

Ary and I made a stop at a Gelateria in Rolle and enjoyed it by the lake. 

Swans, flying in....

.....and then landing on the water right in front of us.

Our Saturday BBQ:
Tiger Shrimps, Scallops and Asparagus served with a Saffron Couscous Salad, Roasted Garlic and Avocado...yummy!!

OMG!!! We tried putting Gruyere Double Cream and Fresh Blueberries on top of the classical Swiss bread Butterzopf and I swear it is DIVINE!!!! Not sure I can ever go back to butter, cheese or jam.....hehe!

Refreshing feet dipping in Lac Leman.....

Me, 20 week's pregnant! Half way there!!

A new breakfast favorite!! A delicious yoghurt from Mövenpick =p

The thing about Aryan and I is that we always, ALWAYS, end up in the funniest situations together (here, one of the occasions I previously blogged about: http://linda-lostinswitzerland.blogspot.com/2010/03/treasured-visit-awesome-birthday-party.html ;)). Probably because honestly, we are both a bit.......well let's just call us spontaneous and perhaps a bit disorganized, shall we? ;)


Yesterday, we decided to go for a hike in the beautiful Vallee de Joux. To be more precise, to the Dent de Vaulion. A beautiful spot at 1483m's in the Swiss Jura mountains with a view of Lac de Joux. I had hiked up this route before, so in theory, I should have probably recognized the way to go. In reality, I simply didn't. I remembered it being something like 6 km's one way, which is a reasonable distance in my "condition" (20 week's pregnant), considering the hike up and the hot day we had chosen.
So, as any pregnant lady would do before heading into the wilderness, I prepared a picnic for us with amazingly yummy looking Tuna/Egg/Mayo Baguette's and a big bottle of mineral water and put the Baguette's in the refrigerator for cooling while we were getting dressed and getting our gear together.

Blossoming trees along the way....

One hour later,we had arrived at the parking spot and headed in (what we thought was) the right direction, full of energy, excited to get to the top and have our picnic. Around 15 minutes later, after a whole lot of gossiping and catching up, we found ourselves a bit insecure about which way to go as there were no signs and quite some options. We had a guy walking behind us so we asked him (who didn't speak a word of English) which way to go to the Vaulion. He told us to go straight.....we think......and so we did. Then we walked......and walked......and walked.......and walked a bit more.....and realizing we were a bit lost, we asked another kind lady for directions as there were still no signs anywhere and we had reached a dead end. She pointed us in the direction of the top. Most of this way, which was probably already 6km's, was flat and we had been walking in the shade of the forest the majority of the time, so we were still very fresh. 5 minutes later, we were starting to walk upwards in the hot and blazing sun and to keep our energy level high while the road was elevating, we started to fantasize about the picnic we would have at the top. We were considering turning back several times as we never seemed to reach that darned peak and the heat was almost unbearable!! But the thought of those Baguette's kept us going. 


1 hour later, we finally saw it, our destination!!! The TOP! We had now hiked for 15km's. By now our legs felt like led and the last 100 meters felt like a marathon, but we just knew it would be worth our efforts. Finally there, we chose a beautiful spot and started to make ourselves comfy for our picnic. Aryan, who was unpacking everything suddenly stares at me with a weird, kind of frightened look and says "Linda.......did you take the Baguette's out of the refrigerator??" and that's when we reached the ultimate anticlimax!!! We were about to have a picnic - with WATER being our only food!!!!

The view from the top

....a quite tired and hungry Aryan 

.....and an even more exhausted, preggers Linda.....

Honestly speaking, if it wasn't for the fact that we knew from previously passing it, that 100 meters down, there was a restaurant, I think we would have broken into tears......instead, we laughed ourselves to those tears, wondering how on earth it is possible for things like this to ALWAYS happen when we're together!! =)))))

So....Cheese Fondue instead of picnic....I guess it could be worse ;))

After enjoying the view for 15 minutes or so, we headed down to the restaurant and had a great dinner, Aryan had a Carbonara and I had a Cheese Fondue. Not sure how often you eat these kind of foods, but considering the amount amount of energy they contain, they make you surprisingly tired!! Anyhow, we knew we had to walk the 15 km's back as we didn't dare to walk any other way than the one we knew, we'd better get started.....


After walking downhill for about 5 minutes, I made a joke saying "Ha haaa! Maybe we should just hitchhike back??" and by the time I had finished the sentence, a car was coming and as if we were totally telepathically connected, both of our thumbs went up and 10 seconds later, we were in that car, intending to just hitch a ride down the steep part as our legs were so tired........but it was just too comfortable and before we knew it, we saw our car.
Yep! A weekend in typical Aryan/Linda fashion ;))


xox

The weekend Tanja & Therese came to "town"

Imagine that it’s Friday afternoon………the sun is shining on your face….you have a massive wooden box filled with ripe, red, Spanish Strawberries in the back of your car that you plan to serve for dessert and the awareness that in just a few hours, you will be picking up two of your very dearest friends, that you have not seen in nearly a year, at the airport. 

That was how my weekend started!!!

We had 3 great days together filled with an unimaginable amount of crazy jokes and laughter and equal amounts of food and cheese ;)

We didn’t do that much. It was not really needed…….we were just catching up on old memories and making new ones and also enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Essertines.

Oh and I’m actually lying!! It was 3 friends, not two! I almost forgot to mention Eric Flat who of course also joined (he lives with Therese). You’ll see him in some of the photos below, enjoying the Swiss country side for the first time ;)))

It was a beautiful evening in Essertines!

I prepared some healthy snacks.....

Who am I kidding?? Snacks and CHEESE of course!!

....I made American Pancakes for breakfast

....for a whole army ;)

Saturday afternoon was spent in Geneva

Eric, enjoying the silence under a tree......total harmony!

Am pretty sure I saw him shivering a bit in fear here....but in the end, they got along well, Eric and the Cows!

Some views from our Sunday walk around the village

Eric was surely enjoying the country side

.....and so did Therese and Tanja =)

Our village in spring =))

The view of Lake Geneva

Buttercups fully in bloom

Beautiful spring day!!

A "neighbor" has rabbits and we were allowed to go in to see them. How cute can something get??

It was hard to get Chris out of there in the end.....and even harder to say  no to bringing one of these home!!

I wish all days would be like these!! Thanks Tanja & Therese for such a lovely and FUN weekend!!! We enjoyed it so much =)))

xox 

 

Happiness can be......

Aryan

- Coming home again for the first time in AGES and being greeted with warm hugs and kisses from your incredibly missed friend!

- Being taken out to dinner to your favorite restaurant (East), where the food is so delicious that it makes my mouth water by the pure thought, by that same friend.....and she knows you DIE for this food.

- Coming home to her place after dinner to find that she has even bought you presents (crazy girl ;)) that are SO YOU and they are even wrapped with Cupcake pattern gift wrapping!!

- Staying up way too late, catching up on everything and nothing.

- Having a loooooong breakfast together....sharing, laughing, remembering, dreaming and planning.....

- Having a friend who has proactively tried out the best place in Stockholm for your favorite pastry to ensure you don't waste your time (or your calories for that matter ;)) on something that is simply not worth it.

Happiness is being lucky enough to have a friend like Aryan..... I love you sweetheart!!! Thanks for everything!


Sadness on the other hand, is having to say goodbye to that same friend, not knowing the exact date of your next meeting.

Some spicy Kimchi 

Korean pancakes

Asian Shrimp Cocktail but with Nordic shrimps.... Honestly one of the best things ever!!!

Cupcake theme on the outside.....cupcake theme on the inside ;)) Someone who knows me well!! <3

Breakfast!

....and she had even bought me lactose free stuff =))

In this box lies a little piece of heaven!

Swedish traditional pastry: Semla!
The bakery "Vetekatten" in Stockholm even makes them in lactose free versions!

Now I'm on the train on my way home to see my family and friends in Köping and hence, more emotional meetings coming up ;))

xox

Photo blog: The long weekend in review

There are pros and cons of living far away from home......an obvious con is living so far away from your near and dear ones, but the pro, or the "glass half full perspective" to that is the amazing feeling of having one of your very best friends visiting you when you haven't seen each other for more than 6 months!! Simply amazing.... It was as if time had stood still. Here, some snapshots:

We went shopping and tried on some glasses....and yes, we are meant to look ridiculous ;))

...and I actually bought these =)))

On Sunday, we went to Les Rousses in France for an afternoon of skiing =)

We had soooo much fun!! It was the first time Madde skied in 15 years or so.....

Not the best weather, but the best company!

For dinner, we had Crepes....

...they tasted divine!!!

Such a fabulous weekend!!! The only bad thing is that it went by so fast.....

xox