Trip 20: Nice (Carnival) and Èze, France

Trip date: February 18 -19, 2012

Nice is located in the South of France next to the Mediterranean Sea. Our visit was planned during Nice's Carnival - a carnival that first started in the 1920's. This year's carnival theme is "sports".

All in attendance: Gordon, Pat, Tom, Ryan, Kathryn, Bikram, Nolan, Jason, Carmen, Parth and Kristen

We bought an easyjet flight out of Basel to Nice for 7:25am on Saturday morning. The Saturday SBB connections for this flight are very unforgiving and the results are scrambling out of the house at 3:30am (Pat, Gordon and I) and a very cumbersome route to the airport which includes a a 25 minute walk to the station, a night-fare fee, a long wait at a train station and a taxi for the last stretch to the airport. Other people either slept at the airport or took another train connection at 2am in the morning.

But we arrived! Nice's airport is extremely close to the city. Much closer than anywhere else I've been. Perhaps even an hour walk away from downtown. It's lovely because the airport is on this strip of land almost surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. I'm glad we arrived during the daylight hours where I could appreciate how stunning the South of France is right from the get-go.

We took the airport bus into town where everything was just beginning to open for the day. We bought our parade tickets to the Nice Carnival. Call it skepticism, hesitancy or pessimism but 10€ for a parade ticket seemed very steep. Especially when you buy 2! There are 3 parades that run throughout the 3 week long carnival. We bought tickets for the Flower Parade and Parade of Lights.They didn't disappoint!!

Little cute shops, little cute bakeries, little cute places to eat - all affordable since it's all half the price of Switzerland. Palm trees, sunny skies and beaches along the Baie des Anges - it's hard to believe it's February. We walked along the Promenade Anglais, the seaside pathway along the water until we veered off-path into Nice's Old town. There we happened upon a book market and the most tastebud stimulating outdoor food market I have seen yet.

Fresh fruits and vegetables, all kinds of variety of candied fruit and dried fruit (kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, etc), over 40 types of teas, 40 types of salts, olives, multiple bottles of special olive oil, fresh breads, fresh cheeses, bouquets upon bouquets of flowers, handmade soaps, hand made candles - the list goes on. Presentation was at 200% because everything looked so tempting. I ended up getting some sundried tomatoes and strawberries. I can't even imagine all the fresh and delicious things that would be in my every day diet if I lived here.

We then happened upon the Colline du Chateau - a beautiful park with a waterfall that gives you a great panoramic view of Nice. In fact, when you google image "Nice, France", 80% of the photos of the city were taken from a vantage point in this park.

Time for a quick snack and we queued up to get into the parade area. I thought it was quite ambitious to section off a huge part of the streets for a ticket-parade but everything seemed to be running especially smoothly. Carmen and I secured front row positions, a necessity for anyone under 160cm.

The Flower Parade / Bataille de fleurs is parade with dancers, music performers and elaborate floats where the participants throw a huge quantity of flowers into the crowd. You could get some serious bouquets here and I saw a lot of people leaving who did. People freely silly string attack the parade performers too. At the end of the parade, the floats are nearly naked since even the intricate flower arrangements on them are thrown into the crowd. No wonder the ticket is 10€ - these type of flowers arn't cheap.

I was unsure of how a sport-themed-flower-theme parade would look but I guess I got my answer!

I went to check into my hostel after. I had to arrange something last minute because I was going to stay with a friend in Nice but plans fell through at the last moment. The hostel everyone else was staying at was already full but Nice is not too big and I found something else right by the train station. I parted way from the rest of the group and after a quick detour to get my hair fringes trimmed, I went to my hostel.

It's my first experience with an overbooked/lost reservation. The lady was really apologetic and I was in an especially good mood so I told her I didn't mind (things happen!). She found me a place at a nearby accommodation for a similar price. This other place is under hard renovations so there was no sign (or name! I was just given an address)- I went around the block twice before I happened upon the owner who took me inside.

The man who checked me in is also the contractor of the renovations. He was from Berlin and he was staying at the hostel while he over saw the construction. In fact, we stayed in the same room along with another girl from China. The room even had a private kitchen and bathroom. The three of us spoke German together the whole time we were there.

Meeting up with everyone else, we had a dinner (some people got all you can eat mussels), and then went to the Parade of Lights/Corso Illuminé. I have never seem floats like this before. The lines between cheerful parade and ominous-nightmare have never been so gray.

Confetti flights and silly string flights are prominent here. I've never seen the large appeal of confetti until this night where you can take handfuls of the stuff and throw it in the face of all your friends (and let someone else do the cleaning up).

We met a German named Erik and went out for a few drinks in the old town before heading to bed.

The next day, I woke up and chatted with the people in my hostel before checking out. I spent this day by myself (everyone else was going to Monte Carlo (in the Principality of Monaco) and other cities surrounding Nice but I wanted a more relaxing trip.

I bought some delicious french pastries for breakfest and went to see the Cathédrale orthodoxe russe Saint-Nicolas in the morning. Then I went shopping for some clothes and then went back to the outdoor market where I bought some dried kiwi and strawberries. A booth was selling 30+ small pears all for 1€ total and I thought to myself:

WOW that's a lot of pears!!!!

The stereotype asian in me was screaming about what a good and tasty deal that was. I figured even if the 30+ pears became too heavy, I won't feel bad about having to leave them behind as long as I ate two.

So everywhere I went that day, I had a pear. A walk around old town? Let's have a pear. Stop for a coffee? Have a pear. WW1 monument? Have a pear. Another walk along the beach? Have a pear. Wait for the bus to go to Èze? Have a pear.

Needless to say, I didn't have lunch since I was bursting full of pears. I took the bus to Èze, mostly to see some of the beauty of the Côte d'Azur area. I happened upon some of the other interns in Èze as well and gave them some pears too. Can you believe that my backpack was still heavy from pears after all of this?

I walked through the Jardin Botanique which was unlike any garden I've been to. Flowers are at a high minority to cacti here. The French Rivera is stunning. Absolutely stunning. So much so that it has convinced me to come back before the end of my internship.

More relaxing activities. I read my book for a while in the garden before heading back to the bus stop. Then there was time for more wandering in Nice's old town before going to the airport. Perfect timing because I met up with everyone in the security line up!

Things I learned:

• There is a reason why everyone makes a big fuss about "the South of France" - it's naturally beautiful
• French cuisine is so fancy because high quality ingredients are widely available everywhere
• It creates a whole different attitude when a big event has no sign of corporate sponsorship. No coca-cola ads here.
• You can bring a ridiculous amount of fruit through European airport security.
  I also made a short cake with the extra pears I brought home.

Things I liked:

• The way a backpack full of pears looks on the security screen at the airport
• Delicious Food
• Disconcerting Floats
• Semi-relaxing on a trip instead of endless sightseeing and running around
• The lack of eye-sore corporate ads that are usually in surplus at the parade

Deutsch Klassen

I have finally invested in some German classes (High German, not schweizerdeutsch).

These ridiculous photos are the well designed logos of the course provider I have chosen called Flying Teachers. They charge 400 CHF a month (ridiculously cheap for Switzerland) and I will take the classes in Zürich every day after work until 8:30pm for the entire month of April.

Intensive? yes.
But hopefully afterwards I won't be such a stuttering idiot when the grocery store cashier tells me something.

Trip 19: Berlin, Germany

Trip date: February 10-12, 2012

BRR ! Traveling weekend after weekend to places with different climates really can throw you off. After a warm sunny trip to Portugal, I traveled back into time to a cold snowy winter. Berlin is infamously known as the divided capital split between the Allies after the second World War as well as their late night club scene and loveparade tragedy.

All in Attendance: Pat, Mario and Kristen

We left from Basel airport quite late in the night. Upon arrival, there was a metro delay of 45 minutes (WHAT?) so we stomp our cold feet at the metro station and ate kebabs which made the whole situation slightly bearable. After a late check in at Goldmarie (6 euros a night) on the east side of Berlin near Ostkreuz station, there was little more we could do than go out to nearby bars and have a few drinks. I think it's funny to tell you that the only map our hostel could provide us was the "LGBT Friendly map" for all the gay clubs, darkrooms, strippers, (etc) that a tourist could want.

We went to kaufbar which was a nice bright place to start the night and made our way along the streets looking for other places too. The main drink I had in Berlin was a mate-vodka which is vodka mixed with this curious Club-Mate soda. Mate-vodka > vodka redbull

The next day, we woke up and froze some more (yes, even though we're Canadian). Breakfast included a visit to a nearby bakery where Pat got a Berliner and I got a chocolate croissant. First stop was the East Side Gallery along the Spree river. We were extremely lucky in a sense since many of the murals there have been recommissioned and repainted in 2009 and many were done by the original artist themselves! So needless to say, most of the wall was vibrant and looked just like new.

Next stop: Alexanderplatz. There we saw the modest but nice St. Mary's Church and the eye sore television antennae. After accidentally wandering into an extremely posh neighborhood, we walked pats the very extravagant Berlin Dom.

Mass was in service so options to take a peak inside were put on hold. Instead, we took our frozen bodies over to the nearest currywurst shop and got a snack while warming our frozen feet. Currywurst is basically a German sausage covered in a sauce that is 99.5% ketchup and 0.5% curry powder and 100% fast-food satisfying.

We went to see the Brandenburg gate which Hitler used as a Nazi party symbol during the second world war. Nearby is the German Bundestag (aka their parliament). They recently switched to mandatory reservations for guided tours. Unfortunately we didn't make one. Essentially (unless you are hungry for German politics) the main thing to see inside is the crazy glass tornado which I ripped off from another website here.

Nearby to all of this is also the Holocaust Memorial/Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is designed to induce an uneasy and confusing atmosphere but I didn't need to plagiarize Wikipedia to really tell you that. You feel it when you're there.

What to do now but stomp our cold feet over towards something warm. We went to the Topography of Terror which is a free museum that tells the history of the Nazi regime (in English and German). I feel like you're so far away removed from it all in Canada that it doesn't really feel real until you visit these museums, concentration camps, memorials, etc.

Following our historical touristy noses, we set out for a visit to Checkpoint Charlie - an old Berlin wall checkpoint that separated the east and the west. Cue: awkward giant picture of Soviet and American soldier installed right next to it. Next to the checkpoint are people dressed up in army uniform that will stamp the passport of any enthusiastic tourist with a souvenir fake visa - is that even legal?

We tried to go see the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche/Memorial Church but it was under construction. Unlike other places where a stack of scaffolding is your obstruction from viewing a building under construction, the people in Berlin bring it to a whole other intense level. We couldn't see any of the church at all because it is completely encased in a makeshift wall. (see photos here that I also ripped off of somewhere on the internet). PS. The eye-sore column right next to the church is a bell tower.

What I saw vs. What it was suppose to be

Of course we tried to get into Berghain aka top club in the world with the strictest door policy ever. We didn't get in - I blame our bulky traveling wintercoats but we had fun elsewhere instead in a club that was under a busy restaurant.

The next day we went to the Pergamon Museum.Highlights include the Ishtar Gate. We also visited the Charlottenburg Schloss which was nice but some rooms were of in dire need of a revamping while others were over-the-top intricate.

We took our flight from Berlin Schönefeld (scheduled to be replaced by Berlin Brandenburg Airport in 2012) to Basel airport and took the train home.

Things I learned:

• Heating pipes are above ground, painted bright pink and even go over the streets and sidewalks - how's that for urban planning?
• They sure love currywurst
• Beer is significantly cheaper than water in Germany
• You can see the different between East and West Berlin in the architecture

Things I loved:

• German bakeries
• The inviting "big city" feel

Things to do when I come back:

• Go to Berghain
• Go in a warmer month 
• Go to the fuckparade and say hello to techno viking

different species of keyboards

QWERTY Keyboard - Canada (and elsewhere)

I wasn't completely oblivious to keyboards being different in different countries. I knew that a country that didn't use a Latin alphabet must have a completely different keyboard layout. However, I was really (maybe ignorantly?) surprised to see how keyboards change within countries that use the same letters as us in North America.

I guess I just assumed that European typist were just super speedy with their alt codes.

The Swiss keyboard is much the same as to what I'm use to. Aside from symbols, the only letters that are in different places are the "Z" and the "Y". The French keyboard is like our keyboard after it goes through a blender and the first time you use it, it will likely take you 10 minutes to sign onto your facebook.

Swiss:

German:

French:

Daily Work Distraction I

A 9 to 5 is a soul draining thing.

I've decided to keep track of my distractions (aka things I find on the internet and thus reasons why I can't work). I tried to implement Gordon's rule of "45 minutes of work and 15 minutes of fun" but unfortunately my 15 minutes of fun enters into a time warps and becomes more than just 15 minutes.

Anyways today's site that I found is Accidental Chinese Hipsters and even though I'm Vietnamese, not Chinese, I pleasantly look forward to the future when I am short and spotty and have a whole range of rainbow tacky excitement in my wardrobe.

Zebra pants? Yellow velvet blazer with pink argyle necktie? I can't wait!

Fractal Broccoli Hybrid

The grocery store mystery is solved. I pass this little guy from time to time, chilling out next to his friend broccoli and cauliflower and I think to myself:

Hmmm

Past theories included it being a broccoli-cauliflower hybrid. Why didn't I buy it? For fear of ruining its fantasy evoking shape and fractals with a potentially displeasing taste.

I have discovered its English name: Romanesco Broccoli. A few second on google and I learned that's it's delicious raw.

PS. I found this website where the author takes her adoration of the Romanesco Broccoli Fractals to a whole new level.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/Romanesco/

Canadian derpderp

Here are some daily examples of how I know I am identified as a non-European/non-Swiss by other people (Besides the obvious fact that I am Asian) :

1. The way men look at me when I hold the door open for them.
   (Which is: uncomfortable and confused)
   Here, "ladies first" is in full practice
   
   
2. I don't have a stockpile of red and white wines at home (only Jack Daniel's Winter Jack, sorry). This lack is apparent as soon as any non-Canadian comes over for dinner.
   
   
3. "Wow! You use REAL cheese on your McDonalds burger!"
   "What do you mean? What do you have in Canada?"
   "...."
   
   
4. The number of times people have to tell me
   "Kristen, you don't need to leave a tip"
   "Kristen, don't tip"
   "Kristen, 3% tip is enough"
   
   
5. How often people point out my "hey" (aka, "eh" 's) like it's a birth defect
   

   "Hey/Eh, do you want to go over there"
   "This is really good, hey/eh?"

6. How I am fascinated by kebabs since we don't have them on every street corner like they do on this entire continent.
   
   
7. Having to explain Halloween but ask about Epiphany
   
   
8. How messy I keep my room and how little time I spend on grooming.
   
   
9. I haven't seen Eurotrip 10 times
   
   
10. "What do you mean you can only drive an automatic?"

Trip 18: Porto; Sintra; Lisbon, Portugal

Trip date: January 26-30, 2012

In the past, Portugal was a major player in ship navigation and discovery. Colonization, route discovering and trading were its top strength. Nowadays it's known for being a peaceful and globalized; beautiful coast lines and winter days that are like Canadian summers.

All in attendance: Eliot and Kristen

Brrr. Let's go away, let's leave winter behind in search of a warmer, more pleasant place. That is the broken record dream of every Canadian. So it's like an absolute dream come true when you are able to abandon that pleasant place (Switzerland) for an even hotter place (Portugal).

Skipping out of work early on Thursday and flying from Basel airport to Porto is a lovely thing that everyone should have the luxury of doing once. Thank you easyjet for giving us return flights for less than 80 CHF. You can take the metro from the Porto airport right to the city center.

We stayed at the Escondidinho Bed & Breakfast and got a private room for 12.50 euros a night. Is it safe to drink the water in Portugal? I thought so but our tap ran orange water for the first night. Oh well.

It was dark once we got there so we just took a nice night time walk along the cobblestone streets and along the Douro river. Across the bridge of that river is another town (wow! so close!) called Vila Nova de Gaia.

Panhandlers here have a different game to what I am use to. The days of a simple "spare change?" are long gone for Porto. Instead, elaborate tales of why the asker is down on his luck are in high fashion. No, not the "I need money to call a taxi because my car broke down". I mean things such as "I have AIDS and my friend has AIDS. Please buy these condoms at ridiculously high prices to help with our treatment and with AIDS prevention" and "I was a concert pianist but now I have lost my job (maybe even his piano!!), I can't afford food but I can afford this cigarette I'm smoking right now". Don't think you're a smarty pants if you feign "no English". These panhandlers are of a different multilingual breed and also speak French.

We saw a lot of university student beings hazed too. Younger students in ridiculous outfits doing pushups and systematically smacking themselves on the head. Older students in black robes and booming voices. Eliot even dumped a bucket full of that orange water I was talking about before on some students from our hotel window.

The next day it was time for a nice long walk through the town and it's winding roads. Walking along the water, contemplating a bus tour (and rejecting a bus tour), and contemplating if it was possible to go up to see the Douro Valley without spending 100 euros (not likely).

Basically we opted for a nice quite day of leisurely walking around the city. No port wine tour, unfortunately. We had a Francesinha sandwich. It's voted one of the top types of sandwiches in the world and despite and appealing description of "every meat you can imagine, then cheese and then swimming in salty sauce", I really don't understand the big fuss. Perhaps it would be better if they substituted all the different types of meat for just bacon and then made it with maple syrup instead of salty sauce.

We walked along the waterline in Porto and passed beaches which I am almost certain must be jammed packed during the on season. Saw some fortress ruins and passed the Casa da Música. We caught the market in Mercado do Bolhã as it was closing and got some tasty pastries. We took a small nap and then heading out near the University area for cheap drinks (the first of way so many mojitos) including a crazy drink with gooey passion fruit seeds. Then it was off to some obscure club and then home to wake up early the next day.

As a general ignorant statement: the average european male takes as long to get ready in the morning as the average north american female... perhaps longer. I have mastered the 10 minutes morning routine from bed to door. If you wake up in a rush, breakfast and grooming time is drastically cut down. This must be a North American go-go-go attitude because when we woke up late the next day, we leisurely got ready and had a full breakfast. One thing I have learned in my Europe integration is that it's completely taboo to even suggest to a European to quicken up their morning prep. They are also not a fan of running like a lunatic to make train and bus connections. I have no idea how punctuality is upheld in this continent.

We made the last train connection that I had written down. We planned to take the train to see the Pena National Palace in Sintra before heading to Lisbon. Portugal's train system is not very forgiving to the non-Portuguese speakers although the website is idiot proof friendly. I felt like the route maps were a bit obscure compared to elsewhere I've traveled in Europe but at least there were maps for us to try. Don't think you can rely on your train departure time to indicate which platform to go to. For some reason they like to put 2 trains leaving at the exact same time for maximum tourist confusion. Don't ask people for directions either, they will swat you away with furious head shaking. Shooo shooo no English shooo

We made it in the end. We got a bus pass for the bus that leaves the train station and goes off into all the horribly touristy locations in Sintra. As we were doing a flash weekend trip, we only went to Pena National Palace. If there was a manifestation of a "gum drop castle", this is probably the closest thing you will get.

Wandering in Lisbon, we found our hostel near a shopping district in a small plaza. The Royal Lisbon Hostel has nothing "hostel" like about it. Where else could you get such a posh accommodation for 9.5 euros a night?! Big screen tv and PS3? A kitchen nicer than the one I have back in Canada? A bathroom cleaner than my own? Homemade baked goods for included breakfast? Posh decor and furniture and a lady who brought me a blanket and the remote when I laid on the couch? I don't even understand how that works.

We ate at Antigo Primeiro de Maio which was right by our hostel. It was really good if you're just looking for something basic like fish.  A lot of bars are close to our hostel and they specialize in serving free handed mixed cocktails in 700mL cups for 5 euro. glug glug, stumble stumble.

Belem Tower, Monument to the Discoveries Jeronimos Monastery

The next day we went to the Belém parish by the Tagus River for some mandatory cheesy Lisbon photos. We also went to the Maritime Museum which (somehow) we got free entry to. It's a museum mostly dedicated to scaled models of historical ships. We also saw the Ponte 25 de Abril (similar to the San Francisco bridge) and Cristo Rei (similar to the giant Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro) but only from a distance.

Lots of walking, lots of feasting, lots of fish soup, lots of egg tarts. We even walked up to Castelo de São Jorge for sunset. You could see the Ponte Vasco da Gama (insanely long bridge) from there in the distance.

We also saw the Carmo Convent, a mediaeval convent ruin and the Santa Justa Lift which is really just a big elevator in the middle of Lisbon city streets. I'm also going to make a bold statement that most Lisbon restaurants are pretty delicious because we didn't have a single bad meal while we were there.

Also, where Porto had pan handler bards, Lisbon is full of people who want to sell you hashish, marijuana and ridiculous oversize heart sun glasses.

Things I leaned:

• It's hard to overcome the shyness that comes with speaking words in a language you're unfamiliar with. Mostly because I am embarrassed for things to sound Spanish instead of Portuguese.  
• They sure love egg tarts in Lisbon
• Nightlife starts at 2 am in Lisbon - the time where nightlight ends in Calgary
• Buy a transit card in Lisbon unless you want to spend 4x as much on bus fare

 Things I liked:

• The sound of Portuguese
• Seafood !!
• Cheap restaurants in Porto (Every entree 5 euros?!)
• Cream filled croissants in Portuguese bakeries
• 15°C in January

Things to do next time:

• More time in Sintra to see the other castle and monasteries
• Go to the beach in Porto
• Go up the Douro Valley in Porto
• Go on a Port Wine Cave Tours