A new hiking tradition

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I had made a promise to myself. A promise that I vowed to uphold no matter what the cost. The promise was to write one post a day, everyday. Now, two months later, I am sorry to learn that the promise was nothing but a pipe dream, one that looked and sounded doable but was very difficult to implement. I am eating Movenpick to help me cope with the loss of this dream. In my defense, I'm busy actually having a life, for the first time in a long time. But still, the loss of a dream hurts. Only dessert can help dull the pain.

Anyway, the last post I promised to let you know why I had to wake up at 9am, after going to bed at 7. It was because I had foolishly assumed that I had superpowers and didn't need sleep and had promised a friend to go hiking with him. Last weekend was the first nice weekend we had in over three weeks, so no way was I going to let it go to waste over unnecessary things like sleeping! My friend C and I went up Uetliberg, which is a mountain right in the city of Zurich. Within minutes of beginning our hike, we were overtaken by old people. I am convinced that these people never made it to the top and in fact turned around halfway and took the train the rest of the way up. That's why we didn't see them once they overtook us, I'm sure of it.

In the 45 minute hike up, I must have cursed at least fifty times, stopped at least thirty times, and felt my violent tendencies rising at least three times. I love hiking, but going uphill is the worst thing one can make me do. Well, the worst thing one can make me do is make me watch the Kardashians on E!, but this comes a close second. Anyway, after huffing and puffing, we reached the top, or so we thought. Upon reaching the top, we found out that we had to climb atop a TV Tower to get the best views. By this time, I wasn't going to let things like exhaustion and inability to breathe stop me from getting a look at the freaking view. So up we went. This is how high we were:



I'm glad we went there though, because it was an absolutely beautiful day, with stunning views:



and here's some more of what we saw:



We stopped for a quick lunch at one of the restaurants at the top and proceeded to walk on a flatter trail toward Feldsenegg. The idea was to take the cable car from there down to Adliswil and then take the train back from there to Zurich. We foolishly put faith in my ability to navigate and follow signs, and needless to say, we didn't find the cable car, even though we were at one point standing right next to the entrace of the stop to take the cable car. We hiked down a pretty steep path for over thirty minutes to get to Adliswil. The landscape en route to Adliswil was absolutely beautiful:





Ever since I began hiking, I only have one tradition that I have no choice but to uphold: I have to trip and fall at least once, and subject myself to deep embarrassment and utter humiliation. Now, you may say that hiking can be challenging and that many people are known to trip or fall, so I shouldn't be embarrassed. Well, allow me to thrill you with the knowledge that unlike most people, I don't fall while I'm hiking. I fall when we have completed the hike and find ourselves on a flat surface. Yes, I fall on the road. And I fell again last week. Now, some women can look very elegant while falling down. They almost descent to the ground with a dancer's grace. Not me. No sir, I fall with arms flailing and bags flying and clothes tearing and knees bloodying. I had to crawl to the edge of the road, since said falling occurred right in the middle of it.

To say that I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole to end my embarrassment would be an understatement. My friend C secretly wanted to burst out laughing, I'm sure, but he had his game face on and first made sure that I was okay. Then he snickered a little bit. But this whole situation was just too funny, even for me, so we both gave in and burst out laughing. I'd love to tell you that this ends here, but pretty much the same fate was repeated yesterday, when I went hiking again. Only the embarrassment levels were a thousand times higher because...I think I'll save that story for another day.