February 24, 2012

Switzerland I

includes: Schaffhausen, Zürich Street Parade, Bellinzona, CERN, Klewenalp

It's really hard to find the time to write everything down. The hard copy of my travel journal has been extremely neglected. I have perhaps 40 bits and pieces of paper, maps, transit passes and business cards kept from my travels awaiting to be properly pasted into it. I am ridiculously behind typing things out here as well so I often try to cut corners.

The corners I usually cut include mention to the things I've been doing in Switzerland. But of course, I'll make a small "notable mention" list right now.

Schaffhausen



July 29, 2011

My very first day in Switzerland, before I could even sleep off the jet lag, I set off on my first Swiss adventure to a town called Schaffhausen in the North of Switzerland. Get ready for something that sounds like a lie:

In Schaffhausen is the Rhinefall, Europe's largest waterfall by some unknown criteria. What about the waterfalls in Plitvice Lakes National Park? I don't know. I have no idea. Tourist trap? Maybe be so but it's free to see it and it makes a nice day trip. No need to do something silly like take an expensive boat ride to get closer.


Zürich Street Parade




August 13, 2011

Happens the second Saturday in August and is the largest electronic music parade in Europe since Love Parade ended in 2010. Partying in the bright streets all day in fantastic costumes? Don't mind if I do.

Maybe I even packed specific accessories from Canada just for this one event. Why not.

Drinking in public is legal in Switzerland and is in no way a taboo. Unbeknownst to most Europeans, this is not the case in Canada and it awes me every time I see anyone crack a beer on the train. So it goes without saying that closed toed shoes are a must because the streets are littered in broken glass (which in true Swiss fashion, is promptly cleared up by sunrise the next day).

It is a fantastic time.

Bellinzona


October 16, 2011
On the way home from Sofia, Gordon and I stopped in Bellizona to run around in the castles and run around in the sunshine.

CERN

November 26, 2011



If there is a anti-particle to the "Zürich Street Parade" it is certainly the CERN facility located on the opposite end of the country in Geneva. If you know anything at all about modern physics, then this place needs no introduction.

Free tours are conducted here. Free anything is hard to come by in Switzerland so you can easily embrace the fact that something so significant offers a free tour. Our tour was conducted by a hunchback little man with a comb-over that was as ferocious as a lion. However, he was as knowledgeable as he was crooked. Unfortunately due to lack of sleep/zoning out and moderate understanding, I understood about 60% of this tour.

What kind of engineer am I?


Hiking in Klewenalp




The onset of winter in Switzerland can be described as "foggy with a chance of fog". Hip hip hurray because if you hike up past the fog, there is some lovely sunshine to guide your swiss hiking. If you so happen to past onto a deserted ski mountain town (Klewenalp) that has not yet opened for the ski season, then so be it. Just be on your toes in case this becomes the scene of a zombie invasion.

If your German hiking friend offers you camembert cheese and your Slovakian friend offered you strange canned meat, be sure to eat more than is polite. Hiking snacks also included hot tea in a thermos and chocolate.

February 23, 2012

36 Chambers


Despite minimum street cred and the bare bones knowledge of rap music knowledge, I went to go see (at very expensive price, no surprise) the GZA from the Wu Tang Clan in Zurich. Highlights include Clan in the Front and Older Gods.

Thankfully, I fit right in. Turns out the Swiss don't look like they have mad amounts of street cred either.

Trip 17: Strasbourg, France & Freiburg, Germany

Trip date: January 21-22, 2012

Let's take a mini break. Strasbourg is the capital city of the Alsace region of France. In its history, its ownership has flipflop several times between Germany and France. Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany is near the Black Forest and is supposedly the warmest and sunniest place in Germany.

All in Attendance: Eric and Kristen

Tobias returned to Melbourne, Australia after his internship and subsequent European travels. We went out for dinner on Friday at the painfully cliché Austrailian restaurant in Zürich, The Outback Lodge. Menu was standard Swiss priced ($$) and highlights include kangaroo, emu and alligator.

One this note, the mini break weekend began. Eric and I took the train on Saturday morning (after a lot of hap-hazardous packing and little sleep). We connected to Strasbourg via Basel. Tickets were only 33 CHF. HOWEVER, in true Switzerland crazy fashion, they charged us 15CHF for "fees". Eugh, thanks guys.

Highlights of the train ride include finally trying that curious green cake I see all the time at Migros. The result? Somewhere between a creamy-coffeeless tiramisu and marzipan whats-its.

Strasbourg was very windy but very beautiful in a quaint-small-town kind of way. Lots of cute bars dot the area near the train station that attract a variety of headliners from Flux Pavilion to The Submarines. It was a pretty chilly day and the sky was quite gloomy but the visit to the town itself was still lovely.

The train station is shaped like a giant shiny alien egg. Located on the Grande Île in Strasbourg is Petite-France, a collection of streets along canals reminiscent of a time period long ago. Picturesque and lovely. Don't worry, there's also no shortage of cute French cafés.

Cute cafés which appear dirt cheap from Swiss price indoctrination.

Cathédrale Notre Dame? No trip to a French city is complete without it. Scenic pictures from above the local Cathedral? Check.



We stayed at a hotel that offered us a crazy deal from bookings.com (Comfort Hotel Montagne Verte for 18 euros a night). A feather down bed, ensuite bathroom, kettle and television? I forgot what life is like outside of hostels.

For dinner we ate at Poêles de Carottes, a vegetarian restaurent which had carrot lights in the window.

Wandering around in the cold wind all day and a nightlife that starts when Calgary's usually end results in an early night on an expensive bed.

zzzZZzzzzZZZZzzzz

Wake up and spaz out. Regardless of careful planning, there is no way to arrive to catch a intercity train other than by running. We ran like crazy and then took the tram patiently and arrived with a few minutes to spare for our train to Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Again, Freiburg is said to be the 'greenest city' in Germany because it has the most sunlight hours. Things we bought in the vending machine as snacks include Kinder Bueno bars and a waffle (my new obsession since Belgium).



Martinstor, Notre Dame (Strasbourg), look out tower, Freiburg Minster

Not to much to do in Freiburg when you only have a few hours to see the sites. A stop at the Freiburg Minster, a walk up the mossy beautiful path to a tower which blew gusty winds in your face and we saw the Martinstor (one of the original city gates) which Eric told me is now nicknamed the "McDonalds Gate" because of the Mcdonalds located nearby that printed its name onto the gate. We ate Chinese food (oh how I miss you) and ate sinful lactose-intolerant Häagen-Dazs ice cream. We wandered into a the Naturmuseum to see a snake exhibit.

We use the German ride share to get home for 10 euros each. I really wish Canada used something this widespread. I feel as though every German I meet participates in this carpooling/ride sharing method and thus travels everywhere for so cheap.


Things I liked:
  • Finally, a trip with no agenda of 15 things to see. Almost "relaxing"
  • Cute French cafés, as always
Things I learned:
  • Häagen-Dazs is an American company that attempted to make their name appear Scandinavian (see foreign branding)
  • McDonalds is very posh in Europe and Europeans find it startling that it's so plastic-furniture-chic in North America

February 16, 2012

Swiss Cheeses


Okay okay okay, how could someone possibly live a whole year in Switzerland without getting cheese obsessed? Particularly if that person hails from a country where "Jalapeno Jack Cheddar" is the height of cheese sophistication?

It's not only Swiss cheeses; it's all types of European cheeses too. The fact that I can buy real mozzarella (in a ball, not shredded and processed in a resealable bag) is certainly something to get excited about. Discount Brie cheese? Don't mind if I do.

I've decided to embark on a goal of buying a new Swiss cheese from the grocery store every time I run out of it in addition to my budget brand and multipurpose Gouda. However, this endeavor might be halted by the discovery that I made 2 cheeses into this commitment.

Maxx 365, is a hard and strong cheese. Slightly nutty and in every way delicious. Declaring my relationship with this cheese as a "love affair" or a "lactose-intolerance case of star crossed lovers" is very appropriate.

I wish "cheese culture" in Canada was a real thing.

February 13, 2012

MooMoo

Here is a joke on how international corporations work that I blantently copied and pasted from this site.

Traditional Capitalism
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

An American Corporation
You have two cows.

You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the band, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.

The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

Sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.

The public buys your bull.

A French Corporation

You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.

A Russian Corporation
You have two bottles of vodka and two cows.
You have no bottles of vodka and four cows.

A Japanese Corporation
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.

You then create clever cow cartoon images called 'Cowkimon' and market them World-Wide.

A German Corporation

You have two cows.
You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

An Italian Corporation
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
So you break for lunch.

A Swiss Corporation
You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you.
You charge others for storing them.

An Indian Corporation
You have two cows.
You worship them.

February 08, 2012

soul sucking desk job


40 hours of an insipid and vapid existence per week.
Why don't you just quit? Because it funds my traveling and my dreams.

The lines between dull work and lazy employee have never been so gray.

February 05, 2012

Trip 16: Brussels and Bruges, Belgium

Trip date: January 13-15, 2012

Belgium has 2 offical languages, Dutch (huh?) and French (hurray!). Our trip took up from the capital - Brussels to a quaint medieval Bruges, the same Bruges as the one featured in the film In Bruges.

All in Attendance: Mohammad, Jason, Bikram, Carmen, Kristen

We slept in the Geneva Airport on Thursday after using our gleis7 train pass to train down for free. We slept in an out of the way hallway near a parkade in sleeping bags that we brought. Overall comfort was at a 4/10 (which isn't too bad when you factor in that we only needed to sleep 5 hours). We then woke up super early and caught our flight to Brussels Airport.

From the airport, we took the very cheap bus towards the city center. A big thumbs down to getting caught in Brussels' rush hour traffic. During the ride, we caught a glimpse of the EU Parliament. Finally, after an hour, we got off the bus at an arbitrary stop and then went to the nearest train station to take us to the central train station of Brussels'.

Finally, a European city with a less than perfect transit system. Trains here are actually late, as in a real 10+ minutes late. We got off at the central station and sought out a waffle shop for our first taste of some Belgium waffles.

Yum Yum Yum Yum. They did not fail to disappoint. They taste as good as you hope. Honestly, the best kind of waffles are the plain ones (usually 1 euro in cost!). Each waffle has a thin layer of sugar and it is delicious without all the whipped cream, fruit topping and chocolate, custard etc etc etc.

After a quick check in at our hostel - 2GO4 Quality Hostel (a steep 19 euros/ a night), we went to check out the overwhelming beauty of Brussels' Grand Place-Grote Markt. Every 2 years, they have a huge flower carpet occupying the square. We saw evidence of this in many many many postcards pictures. However, during our windy winter visit, there were no flowers to be seen but a curious amount of horse droppings instead. This square really does condense an absurd amount of architectural beauty in one area. Where as Venice's Piazza San Marco is a work of classical elegant beauty, the Grand Place-Grote Markt is a more Gothic/Baroque elaborate beauty. In the plaza are the town hall along with several museums and shops.

We went to see the Manneken Pis - a very small statue of a peeing boy (occasionally dressed up in a costume) which was very nearby to the square. I have no idea how Brussels citizens feel with this statue being an iconic symbol of their town but I guess sometimes you have to be able to laugh at yourself. It's curiously here, near the statue, that we found the cheapest (1 euro) waffles in Brussels. After wandering the streets, we got some Belgium french fries (which are fried in beef grease) and they were heart attack delicious.


After, we went to the comic book museum which I found just okay. Knowledge of the French language is a must if you visit since a lot of the exhibits and displays are in French.

Then after a quick rest at our hostel and wrestling with bed sheets and blanket covers, we split ways and Jason and I went to see the Dali exhibit that was happening at a museum in the Grand Place. Well worth the small fee. After we went galloping around south of the Grand Place, looking at the quaint streets and large walls of street art. Brussels' is very big on comic strips and street art so there's a lot of murals around. In fact, our free city map had a lot of places marked to view these murals.



We met up with everyone again and went to a restaurant and I got a pot full of mussels to eat. It doesn't get anymore touristy than 'Mussels in Brussels' but sometimes that's what you want and need.

The next day, we took the metro to go to see the Atomium, a giant Iron crystal built for the 1958 World's Fair. Jason and I were satisfied with a quick glance and few photos so as the rest of the group entered inside of it, we instead went to check out the flea market and more comic strip walls. The flea market sells everything and anything in one big unorganized and slightly dirty heap. Fancy Swiss knives, photos of people you don't know, old letters, antique skates, various buttons.

We met up and then took the train to Bruges (Dutch speaking). We had prebought tickets online which made them considerably less expensive (about half price). Bruges is a very charming little town. We did little more than sight see here. We bought some very affordable Belgium chocolate, saw the Belfry tower, saw the windmills (if you see one of them, you've seen all of them - they are all identical), went to a drum and bass show, took a long walk through the parks (I even took an early morning run which was really lovely). We stayed at St Christopher's Inn-Bauhaus Hostel for 16 euros a night. It was decently nice but a bit far from the center. Free breakfast of hard boiled eggs, fancy croissants and custard buns are always a plus.




Things I learned:
  • Tintin is Belgian - not French
  • Bruges is famous for lace
  • Belgium loves drum and bass
Things to do next time:
  • More Belgium Waffles !!!
  • See a big drum and bass show
  • See more art museums in Brussels
  • Look up tasty Bruges restaurants - it's a tourist trap landmine there
  • See a fancy high end chocolate store
  • Visit Ghent