My Travel Adventures

Towards the end of September and beginning of October, many Swiss villages celebrate a tradition known as the Désalpe (or Alpabzug in German-speaking Switzerland and Almabtrieb in Germany and Austria). The tradition celebrates the return of the cows from their summer pastures in the mountains: the more touristy Swiss villages deck out their cows in towering flower crowns and put on shows to fill in the time between the descent of various herds. In Saint-Cergue, for example, the entertainment during these pauses was provided by alpenhorn players, yodelling choristers, an orchestra band, and a singular man cracking his long, supersonic cow whip. There were also two other processions: one composed of cart-dragging Saint Bernards, and another one of men carrying cowbells.

Today was a short day, as I had to get back to Geneva for my job. We managed to finish our supply of cheese, fruit, and juice in the morning, which made me very proud of our planning skills. We packed up and, leaving a few things at our Airbnb to pick up later, made our way into the city for one last time. Our first destination lay to the north: the Church of Joan of Arc. A highly original and controversial building, it is sometimes referred to as “the Meringue” for its colour and shape; the church is built of reinforced concrete, its tall spire piercing the sky above a collection of white domes.

Today was a major driving day. Charting an eastward course, I drove for three hours straight, after which we took a short break to refill the tank and empty ourselves. We then drove another half an hour to Plitvice Lakes National Park. Yang navigated for much of the journey, as our GPS refused to send us along the tolled highway. Holding her phone with Google Maps open so that I could see it, she would give me the occasional heads up when we were approaching a turn.

We ate breakfast at our hostel with utmost speed to avoid awkward small talk with our fellow travellers and sped back to Croatia. One of the things I have noticed about roads in Italy and Slovenia is that the on and off-ramps for highways are unpleasantly short and narrow. Besides saving marginal costs on materials, I really cannot think of a reason for why this is so. Nevertheless, our subsequent driving up and down the winding country paths of the Croatian coast was equally challenging, with plucky cyclists acting as occasional obstacles and creating pileups long behind their backs.