Sunday Morning Thoughts – May 26, 2024

Popping into France for breakfast and such

A friend was recently surprised how close Colmar is to where I live. Yes, I can drive there in about 90 minutes. By train it takes a bit longer. Mainly because the connection in Basel is a bit tight, so you usually lose almost 30 minutes there. From Basel it’s only 43 minutes and it costs around $20 dollars one way. There might be discounted tickets at different times of the day.

What always surprises me is that from when you leave the station in Basel (where you’re still in German speaking Switzerland) all train announcements are exclusively in French. And not slow French that foreigners would understand. Nope, super-fast French that even I had to pay close attention to. It was mostly your normal train announcement stuff but when she talked about a delay that would have been helpful for everybody to understand.

I got to Colmar early-ish. Not as early as I’d wanted because Friday morning the 6.20 bus decided to be delayed and only arrived in Aarau when the direct train to Basel was leaving the station. That doesn’t usually happen. I’m on that bus a lot. But anyway … I lost 30 minutes because of it (but had more time in Basel – so no additional time lost there) and arrived in Colmar at 8.32. I’d never seen it this empty. I mean there was one group of Asian tourists walking about but that was it. Most shops were not open yet and I saw no other tourists. I really enjoyed walking the empty streets and listening to some of the locals catching up. The weather wasn’t great but ideal for a morning stroll.

It got more crowded an hour later and by 10 AM it felt like you were in a touristy place. Unfortunately, I heard no Elsässisch spoken on this occasion. I just love that language. If you speak Swiss German and French you can pretty much understand what they are saying and I was gonna test if they could understand me as well. I’ll do that next time.

This short day trip was perfect to get out of my head and recharge my batteries. We had a big work event the day before – aka an introvert’s nightmare. It was good to leave the country.

And you know what surprised me? I could really feel how I was looking at Colmar differently now that I’ve been to Paris. I found that fascinating. I didn’t go into any of the museums on this occasion.  I just walked around taking in the atmosphere and enjoying the beauty that was all around me. And I totally took that little tourist “train”. Tourist trap? Well, possibly. Fun? Most definitely!

Morning walks

On Monday morning I walked from home along the Suhre to the river Aare. What a beautiful bank holiday morning. I didn’t see any beavers this time around, but it was beautiful either way. Check out the video I made.

I did something similar early Saturday. I walk this short loop along the water quite often. It’s a little slice of nature surrounded by warehouses and factories. I feel very lucky to live so close to it. It was a truly gorgeous morning both days. Mostly because there were very few people.

And then when you get back home you can get freshly baked bread from the bakery downstairs. It was still warm and oh so very delicious. I do sometimes bake my own, but this kind takes way to long to make myself. I wanted that bread RIGHT NOW! Patience might be a virtue but have the people who say that ever had freshly baked Swiss bread? Doubt it.

That brings me to a bit of linguistics. You ready? I asked for a Pfünderli of the bread I wanted. Can you guess what that is? In German it’s Pfund and we just added -li and an umlaut as we always do, but this time we also added an extra syllable. And yes, it has the same root as English “pound”. Remember the consonant shifts where p becomes pf and such? Now, to make it easy for ourselves we decided that a Pfünderli is 500g, i.e. half a kilo. None of that *we can’t agree on how much a pound is* nonsense that happens elsewhere. Nope. You can also have a half-Pfünderli. This is crucial vocabulary if you ever want to buy bread at a Swiss bakery. Trust me.

Where did the bear go?

I saw somebody reacting to the bear in the woods question by asking what men can do to change women’s reply. Looking at the comments I think “don’t be a creep” needs a bit more explanation. So … I did think about what would make me feel (more) comfortable as a solo hiker. Here’s what I came up with.

Just because I smile and say hi doesn’t mean I want to talk to you. If you want to throw me a “lovely day for a walk” that’s okay, but you gotta keep walking. Don’t stop unless there is a specific reason to. Don’t ask if I’m hiking alone – that’s super creepy. Also, where I’m hiking to is really none of your business, is it? Walking just a few feet behind me feels creepy as hell. I walk slowly – just pass me.

I’ve had a couple of encounters where I decided to message my location to a friend and let her know that there was some creepy guy following me. One of them said “oh, I’ve seen you here before” and then took a shortcut so he was ahead of me again and waiting for me. Like, don’t do crap like that. I don’t know you; I don’t know what you’re up to. I’m literally just out there to hike. If I wanted to talk to people, I wouldn’t be hiking away from people all by myself.

And then there’s the creep who asked if I was single. Wtaf? I was walking along the river minding my own business. That must mean I’m single. I am but that’s not the point. It just tells me that whoever is unlucky enough to date you will never be able to do anything on her own. And that’s just sad.

I like fellow hikers who say hi and keep walking. Come to think of it, it similar if you want to give somebody a compliment. It’s a lot less creepy if you pay somebody a compliment and keep walking. Don’t stand there expecting a biscuit. You were not asked for your opinion so the person receiving it can take it or leave it. Don’t go into that interaction with any expectations.

And “no” is a full answer that doesn’t require a reason – that’s like the most basic thing. Does that answer the question of how not to be a creep when encountering solo female hikers in the woods?

Stumblin’ in

Rediscovered this song. I heard it playing on Sky Radio and looked it up. Somehow it’s speaking to me. Maybe because I possibly stumbled into something - or the possibility of something - earlier this week. Feelings all over the place. The good kind though.

And I seriously have no idea what to do with all this creative energy I still have. It won’t stop or go away. I can barely keep up. Absolutely insane!

I also keep stumbling over how toxic the relationships and behaviors in some of my favorite tv shows actually were. So many red flags and everybody just seems/seemed fine with it. And the books of one of my favorite German authors – too much society sanctioned toxicity in there - I’m out! I keep noticing this more and more.

I guess that’s part of the journey. Apologies for using that word go to North Carolina. Nobody tell her that there is an entire chapter called “The Journey” in my upcoming book.

How would you answer the question “if you could go back, what age would you want to be again?”. People were going way back - at least 10 years. I stood out when I said “right now is amazing, thank you. I’m staying right here”. Life is great and it just keeps getting better. No apologies for being annoyingly happy.  

I’m going to leave you with a quote from The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse: “I can fly, but I stopped because it made other horses jealous”. Writing for my book, I’m reminded of how often I was told to pretend I couldn’t do things because it made others jealous. I actually have this quote written on a mirror in my bedroom. Just as a reminder that others’ jealousy is nothing for me to worry about.

I’m totally gonna fly if I feel like it. Why would I let how others feel hold me back from pursuing my dreams? Sometimes society really sucks. Now you’re all just gonna have to deal with the rise of the girls who were told to be quiet and blend. Not sure you’re ready for that.

I’m fresh out of acrylic paint and around here no shops are open on Sundays. Might actually have to do some writing instead. Happy Sunday everyone!