Fribourg
Yep. Today is yet another casual day in Switzerland.
Panorama UN
And yes today here people woke up and went to work like in any other place. But there’s something different about it. The smell, the taste, the p a n o r a m a and the grass. Some tiny little things you sometimes don’t even notice. The word, the swiss gully (google translate please?) the hobbies and … hmm… the flowers in you sauce.
[That’s right, on your left [or on the top if you’re using mobile] you see a sauce for oven baked veggies, made by my friend who truly believed that fresh and mountainous Swiss air could not by any chance have polluted the edible flowers. Seriously? Those ones? If only I had known better before. My grandpa’s garden is full of ’em!]
Panorama DEUX
So Switzerland. For everyone I’ve met (except probably the Swiss) the word sounds like a promise of heaven on the earth, where people have the highest standard of living on entire planet, earn salaries comparable to presidential wages and actually -> live happily ever and after.
But the funniest part of this story is that nobody knows nothin’ [just like John Snow…] how this life really looks like. What do the Swiss people do during their free time or where they spend their money. Do they all drive Maseratis or eat truffles each day? Do they keep their heads up high and don’t indulge into peasant conversations?
Sorry to say. I wanna break your story. Well, they are rich for sure. But it’s not the money that makes them well. It’s the good-old common sense about the real values in one’s life. And by that I mean… family, friends, hobbies, work you love, experiences. Yes! Money is not the value anymore, it’s a simple commodity like water, electricity or roof above your head. Thus one’s able to concentrate on things, which matter the most. For somebody it’s long-term traveling, for others – mountains and a pair of skis. Some older people might like gardening, some extremist would go climbing all year long. And so it is…
Panorama TROIS
It’s nothing radical or paradoxical about this place. Not like in US where people are either fat or vegan, not like in France where they’re arrogant or…….. foreign. It all look so simple. So what about the sense you’d ask again?
- The smell… Of compost – when I leave my place I usually pass by a compost container. It’s all sustainable here. It’s all recyclable. It’s all green.
- The taste? Of veggies. Yes food is good and it is healthy. People have their gardens, grow their own tomatoes and cook their own meals.
- The panorama – of Alps. Haha. No shit. [To be continued…].
- The grass? Not cut. Wait, what? I tell you. It’s all so simple here. Some places have this nice carpet of perfectly cut grass, when the others are just left alone to thrive and show off the supernatural nature of environment.
- The word? Swiss-german. No clue. I’m telling you. I was studying German for 6 years and yet swiss-german is totally alien for me.
- The swiss gully… Made in here. No doubt. Marked with a +.
- The flowers in your sauce! Mhmm. You already know the story. But it’s just too cool to miss out.
Panorama QUATRE
However, there is one thing I lack here. In this beautiful land of everything. It is … Not taking things for granted? Yes sure, people [all of those I met at least [I might have been super lucky as well…] are incredibly nice and friendly and open and… But they sometimes don’t understand that life in other countries isn’t very similar to the one in Swiss. That there are places where all you see is flatlands and that there’re some people who might’ve never skied. Or that sometimes it’s just isn’t possible to do whatever you want as you really have no savings account…
But shhh! Swiss are totally right about one thing though. Everything is possible! And if you want something so bad that you work for and dream about it, YOU ARE GONNA GET IT. I’m sure. Been there. Done that. Now dreaming further.
Oh. Just one simple fact. The tiles in my office bathroom are Gianfranco Ferre.
Panorama SINQ
Bon app! [How they say…]
choochootrip 