Le Week-end

So I've been gone/ not-blogging for a few days... because I spent this past weekend in Sion with Ian! A perfect weekend. Let me take you through it... but be warned! It's a tad long.

Friday morning, we all jumped into Bernie (our bus) and trucked it on down to Sion- about a 2 hours ride from home in Estavayer. The ride- yes, through the Alps- was breathtaking, and probably hundreds of pictures were taken along the way (most of them not so good, but there are a few acceptable ones). So we get to Sion around 10am and immediately hike to see two dolmen/menhir tombs, both built around 2500 BCE. They're probably 10-20 meters long and are triangularly shaped with a main burial building in the back... the closest shape I can describe it as is an arrowhead. But waaay bigger. And they're just laying around- one under an apartment building, the other in the schoolyard.

Neolithic Tomb in Sion

After a lunch break at the tomb in the schoolyard we made our way to the MARKET! Sion, unlike other towns in Switzerland, has its weekly markets on Fridays. We passed an hour just wandering up and down the streets and perusing people's wares. I didn't find anything to buy, but not for lack of merchandise. More for the costliness of the area. Switzerland isn't the most expensive country because of the exchange rate- ooh no. It's the most expensive because they have to import over half of their food and because they get paid so much more to cover the cost of living. To give you the best idea, I'll compare McDonalds prices (everyone knows those). At home, McD's has a dollar menu. Here they have a 2.50 franc menu (~ 2.75 or 2.80 USD). And those are the kids burgers. A "big tasty meal" (the equivalent of a Big Mac) is 13 francs. The big mac meal here is... $6 or $7 maybe? And the meals run up to 25 francs. Yes, it is like that here- everywhere. Restaurants are terrible to eat at as an American just because it costs so much money.


Anyway, returning to Sion- after the market, we wandered up to a tiny museum where quite a few dolmen (carved rocks that flanked tombs) were housed. And then we were done! On the walk back to the van I ran in to- who else?- but my lovely boyfriend Ian. So we picked up my gear from the van and walked around the town. Our hostel didn't let us check in until 5pm, so we found ourselves a quiet spot in the middle of the only "park" in Sion and relaxed. The people of Sion are so diverse that it was difficult to separate the tourists from the locals- if there were any other tourists around, that is. According to a worker at the museum, there are very few tourists in the area until mid summer (June-July). Seems odd to come here then. We finally got to check into our hostel and were kind of embarrassed to find ourselves in Room 1, right off the main hallway and next to the reception desk. The flipside to this is that we had a private room with a bathroom, so no complaints there. We spent the rest of the night wandering around the town, attempting to buy dinner (my French is poor and Ian's nonexistent). We wound up at Antayla Express for some kebab, which apparently turned out to be delicious (I ended up eating at McDonalds because of a miscommunication between me and the kebab man). Watching movies and hanging out turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for that night.

Our room in the hostel, Sion

Saturday morning- erm, afternoon, we woke up and got going. Ian and I both wanted to climb the mountains that led to the castles that the city is renowned for. A quick lunch of bread and cheese settled as we hiked up the streets and onto the plateau between the castles. We chose to visit La Tourbillon, a 13-14th century castle, first. The climb really ended up being not bad at all- just scary at times when you look off the side of a mountain and into the river below. The views from the top were inspiring... we easily could have spent all day just sitting up there, watching the town below us. But we had other fish to fry, so to speak. We climbed back down and got some cool, clean Alps water before taking on the other (smaller) peak. The second castle turned out to be 10-12th century with a church in the middle of it that boasts the world's oldest working organ (dates to the 1400s). To my surprise, there was another museum here! Tickets are reduced (as usual) here for students, so for a mere 4 francs each we got to witness the town grow from prehistoric village to modern sprawl. It really was amazing- I definitely recommend it to anyone who might visit Sion in the future.

La Tourbillon, Sion

After more strolling through the town, we took a quick nap break and decided to eat a nice dinner. A place a little down the road from the hostel advertized Mexican food, and we all know no amount of willpower could keep me away from mexican food. Unfortunately, the prices were just astronomical, so we settled for pizza instead. It was delicious, but trying to communicate with someone who speaks no english and trying to decide where to pay was a little ridiculous. Perhaps we should write a quick culture guide to Switzerland for Western visitors- just so no one else has to feel as ignorant as I do sometimes.


Our last morning together we spent at our spot in the park. It was just...blissfully perfect. The entire weekend. Minus the bird pooping on my bag, of course. But isn't that supposed to be good luck?