European Trip - Post KISC - Summer '88

Continued From Previous Blog

Italy
Once the summer was over I had some extra time to travel around Europe.  Since Ermis and Claudia were heading to Italy, I caught a ride with them to Torino and looked around for a day.  I then headed to Rome and saw Angela (from staff), went to Piza, then Strega, then back to Kandersteg for a break.  While in Italy I really did not meet anyone which made it a bit boring.  The biggest bummer is that my camera was broken so I got absolutely no pictures of anything I saw.

Austria
After Italy I popped up to Vienna to see Nela and Sandra.  I toured around Vienna for a couple of days, including seeing the castle.

Nela and Sandra in Vienna

Germany / Denmark / Norway
For the next leg of the journey, my cousin Claire met me in Kandersteg (I returned to KISC after Austria, keeping it as a base for multiple legs.  We did a bit of hiking, around KISC first, meeting Wendy there as well.  We then headed to Germany, where we took the boat up the Rhine from Mainz to Koblenz.  From there we headed to Aarhus (Denmark), then the train up to Trondheim (Norway) to see Marianne for some hiking.  

Claire on the Rhine

Sweden / Finland

Heidi, Dave, Victoria,
Peter, and Hanna

I left Claire in Norway and headed to Stockholm, where I met up with Peter and Dave - and we also caught up with Viveca and Christel.  After a couple of days in Stockholm Dave, Peter, and I jumped on the ferry to Turku where we met up with Hanna, Heidi, and Victoria.

After staying with Hanna's parents in Turku, we then headed out to the summer island where the six of us spent several glorious days swimming, taking a sauna, walking, singing, and relaxing.

Hitching to England
Well, my Eurail pass had run out, and though I tried to use what was left over from Claire's that did not work.  So, I made it to Turku, where I caught the ferry to Stockholm.   While on the ferry I walked to the base of the boat where the cars were.  I spotted a truck with a Netherlands license plate and asked the driver for a lift to the Netherlands.  Imagine my shock when he said yes!  So I jumped in and traveled with the driver from Stockholm to Denmark to Germany to the Netherlands.  The driver paid for my food the whole way and I slept in the passenger seat almost the entire time.  Not only that, but he dropped off the truck in Rotterdam, picked up the company Mercedes, and drove me to the Hook of Holland for a boat to England!  That was a total of 1500 kilometers with a single ride! 

England / Scotland / Irish Reunion
I took the train from the terminal on the British side and headed first to Steve's parents' house where I caught up with Steve and Jan.

Peter, Me, Steve, and Jan

From there I went to Berwick to see my grandfather.  After a few days of getting fed there, I took the train to Glasgow to see Anne W.  After seeing around Glasgow and meeting Anne's parents, Peter G picked me up and we headed out in his car to Belfast for the Irish Reunion.

The reunion was actually at Dave's "summer cottage" in Analong in the Mourne Mountains.  There were a heap of people from the summer.  It was a week of fun and debauchery - and just wonderful to catch up with such close friends.

In front of Dave's cottage

Arriving Home
After picking me up from DFW, my parents took me out to breakfast at Bayley's and the next day I had lunch with my mother at St Emilion in Fort Worth   After regaling them with my trip, the next natural question was to ask "what is next".  I let them know I had two priorities: 1) go back to college and redeem myself and 2) save money so I could travel around the world for a year, starting in May of 1990.  Oddly, sheagreed to the plan - even the part with me staying at their house for free!

For More Photos:

European Trip - Kandersteg - Summer '88

Kandersteg International Scout Center

KISC Staff

After working four seasons at Worth Ranch Scout Camp ('84, '85, '86, and '87) I applied to work at Kandersteg International Scout Center (KISC) in Switzerland.  This was my first time to visit a non-English speaking country.  I had applied to the program in '87 but instead of being accepted to KISC I was accepted to a camp in Cyprus.  So, I skipped Cyprus and tried again the following summer.  My dad had been to Kandersteg when he was a scout, and there were several Post 52 / Worth Ranch Staff who had been there as well. In the year since I had graduated from Bell High School, I had been to Texas A&M for a semester and then a semester at Tarrant Count Junior College.  While at TCJC I also worked at Steak and Ale to save some money, which helped pay for the trip.  The "last supper" (really lunch) was at Bay Street, next to Bennigans and Steak and Ale - then I was dropped at the airport for my adventure. 

Scout Center

Gallihorn

I flew from DFW to Geneva, then took the train from there to the village of Kandersteg.  I was one of the first summer staff to arrive.  The staff are Jan B (Australia), Angela B (Italy), Rose C (Australia), Steve B (England), Dave F (Ireland), Damian G (Ireland), Peter G (Australia), Heidi G (Finland), Victoria G (Sweden), Rob J (South Africa), Schlappi L (Germany), Hanna L (Finland), Jolanda L (Netherlands), Fran H (England), Kaz M (Japan), Karsten M (Germany), Suzy P (England), Petter R (Finland), Ragga J (Iceland), Outi S (Finland), Kato S (Netherlands), Mike T (Scotland), Anne W (Scotland), Ron E (New Zealand),  Rose B (England), Arsi V (Finland), Susi G (England) and Marc L (Switzerland). It is obviously a diverse group of people - the Center's tagline is "Permanent Mini Jamboree" - with the idea of attracting loads of people from all over the world both as staff and visitors.  A smaller part of the staff is long-term (generally a year or more), with the larger group working a season.  I was part of the summer season staff, which is the largest group as the summer has the most number of guests. 

Lake Oeschininsee

The Center is at the south end of the Kandersteg Valley.  The camp itself includes a Chalet that sleeps a couple hundred people, plus two separate camp sites - one directly across the river and the other on the other side of the railway tracks.  The Chalet is where the engineers used to live when they built the Lotschberg Tunnel, the campground is built on the tailings from then tunnel, and the Tower is another building used to build the tunnel (finished in 1913). 

Hiking behind Oeschininsee

The first couple of weeks of the summer is staff training and orientation where we do a lot of cleaning of the chalet, do some hiking, and get to know our various positions.  I was on the activities staff, so participated in both in-camp activities (campfire, BBQ, pioneering, taking around day-visitors, etc) as well as hiking trips to the 8 Swiss Mountain Club huts in the area.  The rest of the summer was spent taking care of all the scouts that came to the camp, as well as spending a lot of time with the staff eating, drinking, hiking, and having an enormous amount of fun! 

Kandersteg Village
The village of Kandersteg has only 1200 people living there, though the population skyrockets in the summer.  Aside from the idyllic village of gorgeous chalets with flower boxes, the area is also famous for Lake Oeschinsee, about an hour walk from the village (depending on your fitness level!). 

Photos of the Scout Center:


Photos of the Staff:


Photos of Hiking in Kandersteg:


Photos Around Switzerland:


Continued on next blog