Give Me Bananas

 

I’ve been playing around for the last couple of days. And working & cleaning my apartment too – got to be grown up after all (from time to time)!

I did in fact have cake for breakfast because (not as I claimed on Saturday, hehe) I figured that no one – not even I – should think that cake for breakfast isn’t ok. After all; who said that cake must be eaten at 4pm and not at 8am?

I cooked 1/4 c oats, 1/2 banana and 1 scoop chocolate protein powder with 1 c water and topped it off with banana slices, a small piece of the cake and coconut butter. 

There’s such a coconut butter hype going on and I happily jumped on the bandwagon and bought a jar in San Francisco. Thank god they don’t sell that stuff over here because
A) It’s way too addictive
B) It’s way too expensive
But hey, it you have it anyplace near you and haven’t tried it yet (le shock!): Go grab it and get hooked!

 

 

Other things that I’ve done the past few days:

• Biked onto the Gurten hill with my travelling buddy Simone. It’s actually something that we did a lot in the past few years but we never managed to go this year (until last weekend). I love the route: It’s very steep and you can reach the top in approx. 50 minutes. On the top of the hill is a restaurant where we usually have brunch and enjoy the view of the city. All in all it’s a 1,5h workout which is fabulous.

 

• Went to Kandersteg (think of the picturesque Switzerland where there are Swiss flags in every backyard) and saw my boyfriend paraglide.

¨

 

• Went to Interlaken (again… think of mountains, cows and red cheeks!) and had a great Mexican dinner with the boyfriend.
• Read all about the Wyclef Jean / Sean Penn fight (for no particular reason. I think it’s amusing… though shouldn’t they focus more on Haiti instead of bicker like old ladies?)

I’m off to clean out my closet now.

My bf will move in tomorrow and I should make some space in my wardrobe . Even though we’ll live together it’s not a big thing.. he’ll only stay here for a couple of weeks and leaves for Colombia on 30 Sep (he’s doing an internship at a University for three months). It’s so weird! For most couples it’s such a huge thing to live together..

Hey guys!

How did the weekend treat you?

Saturday was wonderful and I did lots of things that I love:

• Went on a 10+km run and listened to an audio book (“Gut gegen Nordwind” by Daniel Glattauer – highly recommended!) while running. I never did that before and it was quite funny and made time fly by. I was grinning like a moron the entire time.
• Had crèpe for lunch, followed by some ice cream by the newly opened Gelateria di Berna with my friend Karin and sister Selina. Good food & good company = what more can you wish for?
• Met up with Marina!!

As you read in the title: it was kind of a spontaneous meeting! I knew that she’s currently in Zurich and that she had plans to come to Bern someday but I didn’t know when Well when I checked my mail on Saturday morning it turned out that they were going to come to Bern on that day!

So sadly I got to meet up with her and her boyfriend later than originally planned but they might come and visit in September which is fantastic.

Marina is such a lovely and amazing person and just as nice as on her blog. She even brought me some goodies which was so sweet of her!

It seems like August is the month for blogger meet-ups and I’m absolutely loving it! The community of food/health bloggers is so inspiring and kind, I’m so glad to be a part of it.

After a few hours of chatting Marina and her boyfriend left for Mürren and I headed to my parent’s house for dinner.. Oh wait, I need to continue with my list!

• Went to my parent’s place for dinner. Gave presents from the US of A to everyone and ate an amazing dinner (quiche for myself! The joy of being the only veggie in the family!).
• Went to my home village’s annual party. And yes, it usually is as exciting as that sounds . But this year was actually fun; I talked to my amazing friend Livia all night (“How did we grow up so fast???” Oh nostalgia!) but then I had to run (literally) to catch the last train back to Bern.
• Oh and I drank lots of wine.

Dolce vita, right?

Sunday was way less exciting. I basically stayed in bed all day long and watched old Gilmore Girls episodes. I have no idea what came over me but I just felt like being lazy. In the evening I went to see my friend who is going to travel the world for a year and who leaves the day after tomorrow. I’m going to miss her lots! I persuaded her to set up a blog so I could “follow” her on her journey! My Central America/London plans sound like peanuts in comparison.

 

Monday wasn’t even that bad for a.. Monday. I went to a new yoga school (more about that soon) and watched the final two episodes of season 6 of Grey’s Anatomy! Pure drama and constant texting with Karin (my pal, not my alter ego). I love being a girl.

The states are going to kill me!

Yes, I need help

 

But let’s back up a little. The day started off nice and easy at 6:40am (I was too impatient to continue sleeping) and after a refreshing shower we had some hostel-breakfast which was actually really good (toast with PB, ww cereal, coffee, bananas, orange.. the usual).

We looked super fresh-faced (read: über jetlagged) and steered to the Pike Place Market.

The first thing I bought in Seattle was a wheatgrass shot. Espressos are for babies.

I LOVE markets – especially in foreign countries. I wish I could go and buy all local products and not worry about the weight of my luggage.We got some organic cherries, carrots and sugar snap peas to snack on.

 

And then it got bad.

Well I don’t really mean bad let me explain why this trip is going to ruin me:
We walked around a bit more and then spied the Nike store. So we naturally went inside (everything else would have been rude after all ). I almost got a heart attack when I saw a $35 running shirt. We pay +$50 for those in Switzerland! Well it doesn’t seem like much of a difference but when you buy sports clothes as often as I do then every cent counts!

(I got running shorts and a shirt. Simone got shoes – for $65 OMFG!!—)

(What, you don’t take pictures of yourself in changing rooms? huh.)

Then it got even worse.

The Levis store. Levis jeans for 60 FREAKING dollars. Erm.. why do we have to pay more than double the price at home? Needless to say that we went absolutely nuts there. We could blame it on the jetlag but it was actually just us..

Afterwards I had a real heart attack when we stumbled upon this gem:

Holy cow, this shop is HUGE! You bloody Americans are so spoiled . I walked around with huge eyes and basically felt like a kid in Disney land. (Simone is used to my weird behaviour in organic food stores so she wasn’t that worried ).

I left a little poorer but happier.

After all that retail therapy we walked to Fremont (about 3k away I guess) to explore the artsy area and have some lunch. We ended up having some Thai which was really good. Those holidays are going to be peanut buttery.

 

Fremont is really cute and we stumbled upon yet an other market. We also saw some troll that was about to eat some children. jk!

We’re currently in the hostel and will go and have some dinner at Mama’s which is a Mexican restaurant across the street. At breakfast this morning we met a German girl who is travelling around on her own and she’s going to join us for dinner too. Good times!

 

Hope you’re having a good Sunday too!

 

Welcome to Creux du Van

 

But more about that in a second..

First of all I want to let you know that Silvio and I got a baby!!!

 

No, not that kind of baby.

That kind of baby:

(Excuse the quality.. It was late last night.

We admired the little one until almost 1am which resulted in me looking like this today:

Yeah I know, I like my sexy panda eyes too. After all.. bruised eyes are hot, aren’t they?

 

But I’m getting ahead of myself again! So let’s start with today, ok?

Hiking needs good fuel and so I made a HUGE porridge for breakfast today. Into the mix went 1 c water, 1/2 c oats, 1/2 c rice milk and 1 scoop protein powder.

Toppings: Hemp seeds, flax seeds and 1 tbsp almond butter

I almost couldn’t finish it all. Almost.

 

We met up with two of my best friends, Livia and Daniela at 9am-ish at the train station.

 

Awww I love them! Livia is on the left and I’ve know her since before kindergarten! Daniela lived in the neighbour village and went to our school from 5th grade on. They’ve been two of my closest friends for years. You won’t be able to find people more kind and wonderful than them.

 

We headed to a place called Noiraigue (French pronunciation! ) where the route started.

 

 

I wish I would look that fresh-faced in the morning!!!

 

Hmmm which way?

 

Hiking is my favourite activity next to running and yoga. It’s so liberating and calming! I have no idea why “people of my age” aren’t that into it.

 

A quick explanation about our outfit: It dropped from 30+ C° (86F°) to 20C° (68F°) within TWO days over here. I really enjoyed the constant summer heat so the temperature change was a bit of a shock. It was also pretty windy up there.

Hikeface:

The force was with me today.

 

Hiking company!

 

Yes we also hiked, we didn’t only pose for photos..

 

 

The trail was absolutely beautiful..

 

Even though it was so gloomy we couldn’t help but admire the view. I feel very touristy in Switzerland sometimes .

 

After 1,5h we reached the top! It was absolutely scary up there (I’m terrified of height) but the view was still breathtaking.

 

That dude was brave..

 

He too:

 

This is my very first food photo with our new camera. I know, it’s not utterly fascinating but that wrap was great nevertheless . I also had some banana, cucumber, pepper, 2 grapes (hehe) and cookies. Starving Karin!

 

 

(I think I like him)

 

I bet she’ll hate me for posting this but I love how “authentic” it looks

 

 

We posed some more because the sun decided to show up. For 15 seconds or so.

 

And then we walked back down…

I hate walking downhill! It always kills my legs.

 

We also made a necessary stop for hot chocolate. Great for the soul!

 

 

And then we were back down again.

I can’t believe that my first hike this summer was this late. But it was a day worth remembering.

Now I can barely keep my eyes open.

Good night!!

 

Q: Tell me about your favourite hiking adventures! (Ok that wasn’t really a question but hey.. I’m tired! )