This past week and weekend in particular has been simply fabulous. We had this long weekend last week, where we got friday off, in addition to sat and sunday, making it a 3 day holiday. Together with about 15 others, I went to this mountain range called the Dolomites. It's basically part of the Italian Alps, on the border with Austria. The best part about it was that it happened to be snowing the day before we arrived and so we couldnt do what we originally planned to do, which was to climb a mountain, about 2500m using this other system of rock climbing called the via ferrata system, and so we kind of spent a whole morng walking up a mountain with snow up to almost our knees. some pple were really experienced, but for tropical pple like me, it was really quite an adventure. i think i spent more time falling in the snow then i did walking in it.

 
 

The best part was probably going down the slope. Because it is usually used for downhill skiing, its not too steep nor too gentle. Instead of walking down in a dignified manner, we all ended up running down the slope, trying to pretend that our hiking boots were frictionless. THat was seriously FUN. the snow was still fresh and soft and perfect for sliding down on. It was about 3pm when we got back to our mountain refuge, which was this cute little rustic house kind of in the middle of nowhere. We played board games and tried to warm up while some pple went by van to the nearest village. Crazy as i was, i decided to join some others who were taking a "short walk" up a mountain, which was actually quite nice. As it was pretty late, we could only walk for abt an hour before we had to head back for dinner, which was prepared by our guides. And then, after dinner, i totally lost my mind and agreed to go on another walk, despite having already walked pretty much the whole day.

 
 

That was the icing on the cake. Seriously. About 5 of us took a 5 minute walk to a nearby stream, where we spent abt 1/2 an hour in silence whether lying down or standing up, simply thinking. Indeed, its moments like these that remind you what life's about. aNyhow, it was a great weekend as expeditions always are. oh we also finally managed to do a bit of rockclimbing cum hiking up this ~2200m mountain called ponte fiames, which was tiring but great. Inshort, expeditions ever fail to brighten my day, week, month, year, and this certainly didnt break the trend.