Holidays at home: Poschiavo and a flight to remember - October/November 2013

I grew up in a village in the canton of Graubünden in the east of Switzerland - somewhere in the mountains. My parents still live there, and while I have been living in other parts of the country ever since I was 21, I come back as often as I can to stay with them for a few days. Thinking back, I guess my parents did a good job raising us, believing that children need roots to grow wings. I'm happy that Monsieur shares my love for being outside, for the mountains and nature. So he often comes with me to visit my parents - besides, the village is a good starting point for walking and snowshoe tours.
This autumn, we decided to stay in Graubünden for a whole week, a few days with my parents - and three days in Poschiavo. My parents gave this to me for my 30th birthday, a gift coupon for a nice hotel there. Later I found out that the hotel owner has been a fellow student ten years back - this turned out to be a very nice coincidence.
Poschiavo Valley is one of the italian-speaking southern valleys of Graubünden, and to get there by train you take one of the most spectacular railway lines in Switzerland: the Bernina Express. It takes about four hours to get to Poschiavo, however, because of the fantastic landscape the trip is everything but boring. The Bernina line and the Albula line have been declared World Heritage Site in 2008, the journey over 196 bridges and through 55 tunnels is a breathtaking masterpiece of construction work in the beginning of the 20th century. I have travelled with the Bernina Express a few times, but it's always different, depending on the season and the weather. For Monsieur it was the first time, and we enjoyed the trip very much.

We arrived in Poschiavo and at the hotel reception met K. - she has been a fellow student of mine, ten years ago. Seeing her again was really nice - and she upgraded our booked room so we moved into the cosy suite with a bathtub in the middle of the room =)
The weather was not so nice but it didn't rain, so we decided to go for a hike we'd planned for the next day: from Poschiavo up to Alp Grüm. We really enjoyed the hike, although we arrived up in Alp Grüm just minutes before darkness crept up the mountains. The last hour upwards, we walked in the fog - it turned the forest into a landscape you'd imagine in a fairytale, it was fantastic. But when we arrived up there I was tired and felt cold, I was glad we didn't have to wait long for the train back down to Poschiavo. The bathtub in the suite was waiting for us!
The next day it was raining, but we took the train to Tirano, just over the italian border, walked through the city and went shopping, we had lunch in a nice little restaurant (can't remember the name!) and in the evening we went back to Poschiavo, again: the bathtub waiting for us...
On our third day in Poschiavo we were invited by K. to see the other hotel they own in the village, it's a huge old palazzo, the rooms are telling stories - it has a very interesting history, important people used the isolation of the valley to hold conspirative meetings and print forbidden documents.
Afterwards, when the rain had stopped, we decided to take a walk through the valley towards the lake, it was very beautiful seeing the snow that had fallen on the mountains and the sun shining on the still green trees in the valley.
In the afternoon we took the train back to my parents' village, another stunning four hours aboard the Bernina Express.

Two days later Monsieur had the chance to finally enjoy one of his birthday presents from 2012. He has a special relationship with helicopters, on one hand he's fascinated by them, on the other hand he has ended up twice in a situation where a helicopter played a huge role, rescueing him from not so comfortable places. One of these situations happened in summer 2012, which caused his parents to give him a voucher for a helicopter flight for his 30th birthday. He decided to invite me and my parents to fly with him, and so we met our captain and her helicopter on that first of November in Thusis. We flew through the Ruinaulta (dubbed "Grand Canyon Switzerland"), which was an incredible experience, and back to Thusis, passing by peaks, some of them we knew only from below, others we have climbed in summer or winter - twenty minutes to remember. I don't like flying too much, although it's much better now than a few years ago (confrontation therapy...) - but already when I first had the chance to fly with a helicopter ten years ago, I was not the least bit afraid. This time I really enjoyed every minute, despite the windy weather - it was awesome.

Vilnius - October 2013

When I travel for work, I often fly to a place I'd probably never visited if it weren't because of a meeting or conference. With Vilnius, that was different, because I am quite sure I would have visited sooner or later - I have been in Tallinn a few years ago and ever since wanted to come back to the baltic countries. Now I had a chance to see Vilnius, only for a few days, but I looked forward to going abroad this time. We arrived very late in the evening and on the taxi journey from the airport to our hotel I didn't actually have the time to look out the window, I was too busy being scared - the taxi driver seemed to dream of a career as rallye pilot. Of course the darkness also kept me from seeing much. I hoped to find some time to walk around the next day, but the conference started very early and when the last session of the day came to an end, it was again already dark outside and I had only one hour to prepare myself for dinner. So it had to be Saturday - we had been offered a guided tour in the afternoon and I subscribed right away because I hoped to see at least some of the nicer parts of the city (if I don't have much time and am unprepared, I tend to end up in slightly scary parts of cities instead of the nice ones).

When we started the tour, the guide said the weather was very nice for an autumn day in Vilnius. Oh well. Very nice. The sky was grey, the sun not to be seen, but at least it didn't rain. And I had to agree that the trees looked awesome with their colourful leaves. As soon as I took out my camera for the first time, I regretted to have only one of my lenses with me (the 50mm prime, because I travelled with hand luggage only and this one is much lighter than the big zoom lens). But then I did something I'd resolved to do for quite a while: taking pictures in the manual mode only. The weather (with the sky almost white and no direct sunlight at all) made this a challenge first, but then again it's easier to do it when there's no constant change of light and shadow. I must say I'm quite satisfied with the results, the colours of the pictures are very much like they have been in reality this afternoon.

Vilnius is a really nice place, I'd love to come back one day with more time and better weather, if possible. The old town has its very own charm, there's many restaurants and cafés and a lot of young people, which makes for a lively atmosphere. I felt at ease right away. I couldn't listen to what the guide said because I had to concentrate on my camera, and now I feel a bit bad because I don't know much about the city's history. But as I said, I'd like to come back one day, with more time to explore and learn. The pictures will remind me of a really beautiful autumn afternoon in an interesting and friendly city.