Heidiland

So the Christmas break is almost over. We will go back to school on Monday and I'm still going crazy over trying to finish a couple of papers due next week. Well, obviously someone has not been putting his break to good use, instead it was mostly spent on hedonistic pursuits.

The biggest thing I did over the break was visit Heidiland... and I don't know how to start writing about it because it was such a massive trip for me. First, I should thank Heidi la Seoul for making the trip possible. He was already talking about inviting me to Heidiland when we last saw each other in BKK last year but I was not even sure if I would be granted a visa or if I could afford the trip. So it was surreal when in mid-December I stepped off the airport in Basel and the gorgeous Hye Kim Park in his 22-inch waistline was there to meet me.

Oh, let me get this out of the way before I proceed. I finally saw... SNOW, bitches. Yes, the thing that drives us people from the tropics wild. Did I go wild? I sure did. It was snow all over the place. Everything was just blanketed in white, cold, crisp snow; I wonder how many cups of halo-halo and mais con hielo we could make out of them, no?

Hye Kim Park then showed me around Basel and climbed to the top the spire of one cathedral. Oh stunning views! It was certainly the fastest way to see Basel because we had such limited time. And then we took the train to Bern, the capital. Every building was green there. Color-coordination, a dream place for anyone with OCD. We finally met Heidi la Seoul and we greeted each other with the loudest kathoey shriek we could muster.

In the next few days we drove a bit around Heidiland. I don't how to give justice to the scenery, especially the towering mountains that kept on taking my breath away. They all looked so postcard perfect, I could stare at them for hours. We also visited the lakeside cities of Neuchatel and Lucerne, and then Zurich. It was a pleasure walking down the narrow alleys of these cities that often lead to a square, always with a fountain as its centerpiece.  I'm just also completely amazed by how each city always has the most awe-inspiring views, mainly consisting of grand, old buildings facing a river or a lake and with the mountains in the backdrop. Divine, divine, divine!!! I just don't have the words to describe them.