nickinswitzerland

2006-08-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Klaus Fluoride Dead Kennedys bassist. I was a bit more excited for the photo than he was.

2006-08-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Jeff Penalty the new Dead Kennedys Singer with Brigitte

2006-08-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

EGGIWIL!!!! Erika - Mountain Restaurant

2006-08-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Matti, Brigitte and Anji. Night out in the city. Albanifest.

2006-08-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Alyssa at one of our BBQs

2006-08-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

Not me but I did that too

2006-08-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

Don't Mess With Us!!

Making the Best of Our Remaining Time

2006-08-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 15

I’ve been really busy lately. So busy that I haven’t found time to write updates and now I’ve got to try and fit the last 4 or 5 weeks in one blog entry.

The first thing I did since my last update was visit Carsten at his parents’ place in Freudenstadt. They were away on a trip in the Canadian North so we had the house to ourselves with Brad and Kelly. It was the opening day of the world cup and Germany was playing in the first match. We watched the game in the center of his town where there was a big screen for the match and a stage set up for a concert. It was a big deal for the Germans, especially Carsten and his friends. It was a 4-2 win in the opener and the Germans partied like they had won the tournament already. The next day the four of us went for a cruise through the black forest in his mom’s convertible. He had already taken me on that same drive the first time I visited, but this time was different because we couldn’t have had a more perfect day to have the top down. I left Germany the day after that, I had to go to school and to get things ready for Brad and Kelly’s stay at my place.

The first day of their visit here we walked around Winterthur. I did my best to show them the city but it was bloody hot that day (like it has been every day since) and it didn’t take long for the sun to get to us. In the evening Brad and Kelly got to meet some of my friends when we cheered on France in their disappointing first match. The next day we took a train to Zurich for some more sight-seeing. I didn’t know Zurich much better than they did at that point so we got to know the city together. It was a really great day, the best part by far was when we rented a little paddle wheel so that we could go swimming in the middle of Lake Zurich. In the evening we came back to Winterthur to meet Brigitte for dinner. I think the price of eating out in Switzerland kind of shocked Brad and Kelly. Afterwards we went to one of my favourite bars for a birthday drink, yep it was June 14th. All my friends from school were there and I had Brad and Kelly representing the Winnipeg crew so it was a really good night. I got some really good birthday loot too. Thanks everybody.

In the morning Brad and Kelly took the train to Hamburg. I now had about ten days to do all of my projects for the whole semester. There were some really long nights. Most of the work is done in groups though and we always found a little time to have fun. In the end it all got done and most of it was done well. During that time I also went canyoning on a trip organized by the school. Along with Daniel, Katri and a whole bunch of Swiss we spent one night camping near Bellinzona (in the Italian part of Switzerland). In the morning we went up the mountain as a group. From the top of the canyon the instruction started and we started sliding down natural waterslides and jumping off cliffs into the natural pools of water. My biggest jump was 11m, which is pretty big and seems even bigger when your target is the size of a bedroom. Canyoning also involved a lot of absailing which is descending the cliffs and waterfalls by rope and harness. I wish I had pictures but it would have been impossible to bring a camera. You can check out a photo gallery from the company at www.swisschallenge.ch/fotogallery/canyoning_boggera.html.

Later that week I got to find out what Brigitte's surprise birthday gift for me was. We started with dinner at her place with the bottle of Moet she gave me. That's when she uncovered the surprise and told me that we were going to the Dead Kennedys concert in Winterthur that same night. The concert was great. Not being in the know with current Dead Kennedys news, I was kind of disappointed to see that they were playing without their original lead singer, but the replacement was really good. The crowd was pretty wild too. The singer had to keep pushing fans off of the stage to keep it clear and at one point Brigitte and I ended up almost in the middle of a big fist fight.

On the 25th Alyssa arrived in Winterthur. She stayed for a week but it felt more like a couple days. I was still really, really busy with school, some days I barely found time to see her. At the end of that school week, when everyone was done with most of their projects for the year, Brigitte threw a party to help us wind down. At the end of the night there were seven people lying in Matti’s bed, some later found more comfortable spots to sleep, some found less comfortable spots. That weekend was also the weekend of Albanifest. It’s the biggest city street festival in Switzerland, maybe in all of Europe. They set up rides and outdoor bars and tons and tons of food booths all over the center of the city. Our first night out in Albanifest may have gone down in the books as the best night we spent in Switzerland. There wasn’t a single second that went by that night without something crazy or ridiculous happening; Anji getting in fights (I think there were 3 incidents), Brigitte shooting her mouth off at total strangers, Ella doing whatever it is that Ella does…. it was a great night. We went back out in Albanifest the next night and the night after that. Saturday morning, after the first night out in Albanifest, Alyssa had to catch her flight to London. I was a little jealous due to the fact that she was going to a Canada day party with thousands of Canadians. I managed to cope with the jealousy because I was going paragliding in the mountains that day. However, it didn’t turn out how we hoped. After riding the train, not knowing where to go and hiking up obscure mountain roads for over an hour we arrived at the paragliding school to find out that we were too late. We missed the instruction period and the students that made it on time were already doing their test flights. So we turned around, hiked back down the mountain and salvaged the day on the side of Lake Zurich.

Monday was the start of our final week of classes, but with the projects and presentations out of the way and with exams still a week away Matti, Anji and I took the day off and took the road trip of all road trips. Our destination cities were Bern and Luzern, but I think it was what happened on the road and in between those two cities that made the trip so memorable. On the drive from Bern to Luzern we drove through the Emmenthal region, famous for its cheese. Anji found a lunch spot in Emmenthal on the internet before we left. It was outside of a town called Eggiwil which was way off of the tourist path. The restaurant was at this farmhouse on the top of a mountain. They made their own cheese in the barn right beside the patio where we ate. It was so nice there and just being so far away from the regular Switzerland we knew was awesome. After lunch when we were back down the mountain and on the way to the highway we passed a Kambry chocolate factory. Anji and I yelled at Matti until he turned the car around because a Swiss chocolate factory is not something you should just drive right by. There was a gift shop in the factory that sold all of the gift wrapped chocolate that was made there. They also had an open bag for you to sample every single type of chocolate or cookie that they produced. We circled the store taking free samples until we were sick in the stomach.

Back in Winterthur with exams going on and everyone preparing to go home, there was a party at absolutely every possible moment. One of the best was at Anji’s place. His landlord was away and his room mates didn’t object so we had our first house party in a real house. Daniel captured some of the drunken mayhem on camera, if you’re lucky I’ll show it to you when I get back.

On the 14th of July I had put four of my exams behind me (I think they were all pretty easy) and had just one left ahead of me. That was the night that the school held a farewell party for the international students. It was finally obvious that our semester abroad was over. Some of the international students were leaving the day after their last exam, some were sticking around until the middle of August. But our time together was just about up.

2006-06-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

the North Sea in Scheveningen

2006-06-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

Museum in Amsterdam. I was never actually there, I was never actually 1 inch tall either.

2006-06-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

David, Me, Linda, Brigitte in Argentinian restaurant in Amsterdam

2006-06-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

Amsterdam from the canal tour

2006-06-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Rotterdam

2006-06-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Lugano, Switzerland

2006-06-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Lugano

2006-06-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

Pia, Me, Brigitte, Linda

Lugano and the Netherlands

2006-06-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Friday June 9,

Lugano is awesome! It’s in Switzerland but it’s nothing like the Switzerland that I know. When Linda, Pia, Brigitte and I left Winterthur in the morning it was cold with forecasts for rain. When we got to Lugano 3 hours later it was hot, sunny and the sky was totally clear. The second we got out of the train there was this great feeling from just being there.

The whole day was spent either on restaurant patios eating pizza and pasta or walking around the lake, enjoying the sun. We also took a funicular up Monte San Salvatore, one of the mountains on the lake. From there you could see the snowy alps to the north and Italy to the south. If it were less hazy we would have been able to see the city Milan. By the end of the day we didn’t want to go home but we didn’t have much choice, all the hotels in the area were pre-booked because it was a long weekend. Maybe I’ll get the chance to go back.

Last week I got my first hair cut in over 3 months. I was stubborn about going because I don’t trust hair dressers that I don’t know, especially when they don’t speak English, and also because a hair cut in Switzerland is stupidly expensive. I couldn’t put it off any longer though and it turned out ok. I also spent the week doing homework so that I could go to the Netherlands with Brigitte for the weekend without having any worries.

Thursday evening we flew from an airport North of Basel on the French border. Actually the airport was half Swiss and half French, there was a wall running through the middle of the terminal so that you couldn’t cross the border. We boarded our flight no problem and an hour and a half later we were in Amsterdam. Brigitte’s mom and sister were there to pick us up and take us to their home in Zevenhuizen. I had met Brigitte’s mom a few weeks earlier in Winterthur but just for a moment. This was the first time I was meeting her older sister Antoinette. They were both really nice and made me feel at home really quick. On the way to Sevenhuizen we stopped at BK for a whopper (about the only thing I tasted that weekend that wasn’t typically Dutch) and at some windmills outside of their village. They weren’t spinning at the time but apparently they’re the only ones in the country still working. When we got to their place we settled in and relaxed. I had a croquette and a Heineken, both typically Dutch.

In the morning Brigitte’s mom made us breakfast before we took the metro to Rotterdam. Rotterdam was pretty cool. Almost all of the buildings are really modern with crazy architecture. Not many historical buildings are left because the city was bombed in the war. First thing we did was make a trip up a tower downtown to see the city from above. You could also see the boats moving around in the world’s biggest harbour. We wanted to take a harbour trip on the pancake boat (all you can eat pancakes, the Dutch love pancakes) but we didn’t have much time before we had to be back for dinner. In the evening we went to surprise Brigitte’s friend Linda at home, she had no idea we left Switzerland. She was sleeping when we got there so she looked more tired than surprised, but she was definitely happy about the visit. Later we went with Linda and her boyfriend David to an “après ski” bar in Rotterdam. I didn’t really understand the concept of the bar but it was definitely interesting, bar tenders singing songs on the bar and people dancing on the tables. From what I hear it was typically Dutch.
The next morning we drove to Amsterdam, Linda and David came too. We walked around the city hitting all the major sites. One of the best parts was when we took a boat trip through the canals. It wasn’t too exciting but the sun was out and it was really relaxing. We mostly avoided the dark side of the Amsterdam experience but we did take a walk through the red light district. It’s a weird place to see, some things that are so private in any normal city are so public in Amsterdam. We even saw guys using urinal booths in the streets that didn’t have any walls or anything.

Our last day in the Netherlands was probably my favourite. Brigitte took me to Den Haag by car. First stop was Madurodam, it’s a place with miniatures made of all the different sites in the Netherlands. It was full of tourists and families with young children but I’m glad we went it was funny to see. Next stop was the beach in Scheveningen. I got to see the North Sea in March when Bjorn took Carsten and I to Lubeck, but it was too cold to even be outside that day so I was happy to get another visit to the sea. We ate broodje Hollandse garnalen, a shrimp sandwich and poffertjes, a bowl of miniature pancakes covered in butter and sugar, and we walked down the boardwalk. We were running short on time so Brigitte gave me a quick driving tour of Den Hague where the Parliament is, before heading back for dinner. Brigitte’s mom took us out for dinner to a really nice restaurant in Rotterdam along with Antoinette and her boyfriend Johan. It was a good way to end a great weekend.

This week in Winterthur was pretty uneventful for me but I’m now on a train to Freudenstadt, Carsten’s home town to see him and Brad and Kelly. Can’t wait to see them and hear about what’s going on in Winnipeg.

2006-05-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

Spanish party. Sure I had a great time.

may

2006-05-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 25

For the last couple of weeks the weather’s been disappointing, it’s kept us mostly inside in our free time. I’ve been waiting for my first chance to go swimming on the side of lake Zurich but it seems like that chance isn’t going to come.

The big event of the weekend before last was the Spanish party. Adriana, a linguistics student from Spain, threw a party at her place and made buckets and buckets of sangria. It was a great party but I felt kind of bad for her when too many people showed up. There was some talk about the cops coming to break it up, but I don’t think that was ever really going to happen. Eventually people started leaving on their own will. I think it had a lot to do with the sangria being finished.

Last Friday I went along with Peter, Melanie and Sven to Germany to do some grocery shopping. We went to a big mall in Constance, a border town on Lake Constance. Everything was half the price or less from what you would pay in Winterthur. The three of them do these shopping trips every couple of weeks and pack Sven’s car til it won’t hold anymore food. I’ve noticed that since that trip I’ve been eating a lot more just so my food doesn’t spoil. Later that evening ESN held an event called Swiss Economy night for us. They brought in a couple of speakers to tell us what we need to know about the Swiss economy and how to apply for jobs should we decide to do an internship here once we’re working. The location was really cool, it was held in a swank bar where normally only the Swiss big-shots can get in. It was in the 3rd basement of one of the big banks, converted from an old bank vault. It was still early when that event was over so Linda, Brigitte and I went out to another bar for a drink. Normally I just stick to beer but for some reason that time I tried a cocktail. When I saw afterwards that my drink cost 17.50 I decided I’m not going to be so adventurous next time.

Since I started my semester in Winterthur I’ve had almost no school work to do but I can feel that starting to change. I think I have 4 exams from 10 classes in July but other than that all my marks are going to be earned in the month of June from projects and presentations. I’m trying to get a good chunk of that work done now because it won’t be long before Brad and Kelly are here and not long after that Alyssa’s coming to visit.

Tomorrow I’m going to Lugano, it’s in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. It’s on the other side of the alps where it’s usually hotter and drier. Also later today I’m going to book a ticket to the Netherlands for next weekend to see where Brigitte lives and to cross another country off my list.

2006-05-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

This is where I live. It's small but it's enough.

2006-05-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

apartment2

2006-05-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

apartment1

2006-05-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

kitchen

2006-05-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Winterthur out my window

2006-05-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Winterthur out my window1

2006-05-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

Bern

2006-05-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

Aare River in Bern

2006-05-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Labour Day Finnish Party

2006-05-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Anna, Anji and I at Ilya's

2006-05-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

Linda and Sander, Luzern

2006-05-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

Luzern's covered bridge

Luzern and Bern Daytrips

2006-05-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 7,

We didn’t get the sunshine we were hoping for last weekend, it was raining all day but Linda, Sander and I had a good trip to Luzern anyways. Luzern’s a beautiful city on Lake Luzern and surrounded by the alps. Mount Pilatus is the biggest of those mountains around the lake so the first thing we were going to do was take a cable car to the top. When we asked at the tourist desk they told us not to bother going up because we wouldn’t be able to see anything anyways. That was disappointing because after being in Switzerland for a month Linda still hadn’t seen any real mountains. We left Luzern without seeing any mountains because of the clouds but we agreed that we could at least smell them. Another tourist attraction in the town is a lion sculpture carved out of the side of a cliff. We were disappointed again when we saw that it was covered in scaffolding for repairs. That turned out to be not such a bad thing because it gave me chance to climb up and get some pictures up close. After walking around the city and seeing all that we could with the bad weather we caught a train back to Winterthur. Going back early gave us a chance to rest before Ilya’s birthday party. He’s a Russian exchange student. Everyone was talking for days before the party about the $200 dollar bottles of vodka that he brought from home. We made quick work of the vodka but in the end I think it was the vodka that worked us.

Saturday night of last week was a little bit more relaxing. I spent it at Peter’s place with Sven, Anji and Christian. We played some foozball, ate some pizza and watched a movie. Peter’s place is definitely the best out of all the student housing in Winterthur. They’ve got everything there, even a server with every album and movie you could imagine. Sunday the weather cleared up thankfully. It was Labour day weekend in Switzerland which meant no school on Monday. It also meant that the Finnish people were throwing a big party. For whatever reason Labour day is the most celebrated holiday in Finland, and the Finnish like to celebrate. It was a big BBQ hosted at Mattti, Ella and Brigitte’s place (Brigitte was in Zurich with her mom who was visiting). Not much else to say about that except that we all had a good time.

The week was pretty routine. Other than school I played uni-hockey on Tuesday and watched some intramural soccer on Wednesday. The exchange students put together their own team. Anji the superstar scored three goals and Ilya kept a shutout til the last minute for 4-1 win.

Thursday after school I went to Linda’s for supper. She and Brigitte made beef stroganoff for Pia, Sander and I. Her place is at the edge of the city, it’s got a really nice backyard next to the forest. Friday we went to the movies. We saw a really good independent film called The Road to Guantanamo. It’s a documentary style movie about some innocent travelers in Afghanistan that get mixed up in the attacks of 2001. They get sent to Guantanamo Bay for years of torture and isolation with no chance to prove they had done nothing wrong. The movie took a toll on us so afterwards we went to a Turkish bar to get over it.

Yesterday I did another day trip with Linda and Sander, this time to Bern, Switzerland’s capital. I liked Bern a lot, it wasn’t as touristy as Luzern and it feels a lot more laid back than Zurich. They’ve got lots of chess boards painted on the sidewalks with big wooden pieces for anyone to use. We played a game even though we didn’t really know the rules. Half way through an old Swiss guy decided to watch our game. He didn’t say anything because he saw us speaking English but every time we would make a move it seemed to piss him off. Eventually he helped Sander beat me. The guy challenged me to a match afterwards but I had no problem saying no. Bern was apparently founded on the site where a guy shot a bear so now the brown bear is Bern’s symbol. You can see the Bern flag with the bear on it everywhere you go and there’s a bear enclosure just beside the city’s historic center. My French teacher gave me the assignment for the weekend to find out the reason why the bears are there but I don’t think there is any reason further than what I just said. When we got back to Winterthur we met with Brigitte and her friend Linda (I think it’s a common name in the Netherlands) who’s visiting from Rotterdam for the weekend. We had a couple of drinks and then called it a night. We were all pretty tired from all the walking.

2006-04-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Anna's Party. It was better than I'm letting on in the photo.

2006-04-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

Chow Down at Matti, Ella and Brigitte's place

First BBQs of the Year

2006-04-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

Thursday April 27

It’s been a while since my last update. Am I getting lazy with writing these blogs or is it just that I have less to write about since I’ve fallen into some routines? I think both. From Easter weekend until maybe last Saturday we had some really good weather. It was hot and sunny and we made the best of it.

Easter Sunday we had a picnic in the park beside my apartment. My building is mostly full of students I think, I’m not sure because I still haven’t really spoken with anyone that lives here. But the building is on the grounds of an old folks home so we have a nice park where the old people sit out in the sun in the afternoons. Anyways the picnic was good, we even had an Easter egg hunt. Last Wednesday night Pia had Ella, Matti, Brigitte and I over for dinner. We ate outside in her “backyard”. A backyard here isn’t quite what it is in Winnipeg but it was a good night. Pia’s a great cook, I hope I can get her to cook for me some more. The next evening Ella and Matti had the first real BBQ of the summer. The guests were the same as Wednesday plus Daniel and Tatyana. Tatyana’s Russian but she’s been living and going to school in San Jose, CA for the last nine years. Officially I’m not the only one from North America here but if you ask her where she’s from she’ll tell you Russia. I think she’s got more of a grudge against Americans than anyone else here does.

Friday and Saturday what did we do? BBQ at Peter’s then BBQ at Anna’s. I like the way this summer is shaping up. Peter’s was a pre-game for a big party in Winterthur which we never ended up going to. Anna’s living in a house in a rich suburb of Zurich. She had some connection with a Finnish woman that lives alone so she got a really good deal on rent. Her house is really weird, it’s 3 stories plus a loft on the 3rd floor. Some of the doors are only as tall as my shoulders, some of the floors are really sloped, and there’s strange things hanging from the ceilings and beams. She invited all the international students to the BBQ and went all out with feeding us. After supper I joined Mike, his brother and Brad on the internet for an NHL playoff draft. The draft lottery went heavily in my favour so it shouldn’t be too hard to continue my pool dominance. When I got back upstairs after the hockey draft there were a lot of empty bottles on the table and everyone was in a great mood.

Since then the weather has stayed mostly rainy and a bit colder. Tuesday evening I went to intramural Uni-Hockey. It’s basically the same floor hockey that I’m used to but it’s got a few differences. It’s played with a whiffle ball and shorter sticks with webbed blades. It’s also got more strict rules that keep the pace of the game a lot faster. I didn’t realize how out of shape I am until then. If I play twice a week like I plan to it won’t be long til I get back my rugby endurance. After uni-hockey I cooked Brigitte one the meals I owed her. I tried pasta carbonara because it’s one of my favourites to eat and I wanted to know how to do it myself. Thanks to Anji’s instructions it turned out well, it’s actually really easy to make. I made it again today for myself. Other highlights of today, April 27 2006 include: meeting Martin the guy that’s coming to the UofM for both semesters next year and I registered to go hang-gliding on the first of July (only 50 CHF, seems like a good deal to me). Tomorrow I get to test out my new camera batteries. I’m doing a day trip to Luzern with Sander and Linda. It’s supposed to be rainy but I’m crossing my fingers for a little sun.

2006-04-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

Rheinfall

2006-04-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

Fondue

2006-04-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Anna and Anji in Flumserberg

Winterthur Week 2

2006-04-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday April 15

The snowboarding last Sunday was great. I went to Flumserberg with Anna from Finland and Anji. Flumserberg is a small resort by Swiss standards but it’s pretty close to Winterthur and it’s one of the cheapest in the country. When I got up in the morning (after sleeping through my alarm and causing us to miss our train) it was raining in Winterthur. I was praying that it wouldn’t be raining in the mountains. The weather turned out to be really good for most of the day. The weather heated up to almost 10 above and we had some really good spring riding for the middle part of the day. Later on though thick clouds crept up the mountain and swallowed us. By 3 o’clock we couldn’t see ten feet in front of us and we had to call it a day. That foggy ride down to the gondola marked the end of the day and also my season. I think I’ll have to hide my snowboard so that it doesn’t taunt me for the next 3 ½ months here in Switzerland.

Week 2 of classes was good but it was also a bit of a reminder that I’m here to go to school, not just travel, party and snowboard with some new friends. Each class you take here is given in only one 2 hour lecture per week, so the pace is pretty quick in most of the classes. The course work isn’t too heavy but I think that about half of my ten classes require a presentation, and I think the expectations are set really high. For now all I can really do is keep up with my readings and not fall behind early.

Wednesday night ESN, the organization that takes care of the incoming exchange students, put on a Swiss Dinner for us. It was a cheese fondue and they encouraged us all to bring our own white wine. The fondue was delicious, at least until the pot I was eating out of got burnt. It was a really good time, I think almost all of the exchange students were there. I finished the night off at a 24 hr bar called Gotthard. I skipped my 8:00 class in the morning and got to school for my second class at noon. I promised myself I wouldn’t make a habit out of doing that.

After school on Thursday I went to Brigitte’s place where she and Linda had put together a small birthday party for Sander. The three of them come from the same school in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. We ate some cake and Sander opened some gifts and then we moved the party to a bar called Gaswerk where a battle of the bands was going on. The music was really good. The winner gets to play at a party put on by my school in a couple weeks which I’m now looking forward to because I liked them a lot.

Yesterday was more of a relaxed day. I did some shopping and laundry, used the internet a bit, hung out at Anji’s place and then went out with some others for a really good Mexican dinner.

Today I did a day trip with Pia from Finland, and Linda and Brigitte. We went to Rheinfall and Schaffhausen. Rheinfall, which is Europe’s biggest waterfall and only a 20-30 min. train ride from Winterthur, was cool but it didn’t even come close to meeting my expectations. The falls are on the Rhein so they are really wide and powerful but they were only 23m. tall and they were so gradual that they were more like really serious rapids. They were impressive but the title of Europe’s biggest is really misleading. From the falls we went to Schaffhausen, a nearby city, and toured around a bit. The city has a really nice looking old town and an old town wall complete with moat. We didn’t stick around Schaffhausen for too long because it started raining. We headed back to Winterthur for a pasta dinner at Brigitte’s and then a movie at Pia’s. I think I’ll use the rest of my Easter long weekend to catch up on sleep and do a little reading.

Contact

2006-04-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Since I know that you’re all waiting to send me the cookies that you baked me I’ll give you my address and other contact info.

Nick Neufeld
Palmstrasse 1
8402 Winterthur
Switzerland

Cell number 00 41 774155362. If this number doesn’t work you might need to dial something other than the 00 at the front.

My new skype name is neufeld_n.

Talk to you soon.

2006-04-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Anji, Matti, Daniel, Me at Welcome Party in Zurich

2006-04-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hi I'm Nick I'm new at this school..... what?......no it's just a sunburn.

2006-04-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

A little hiking is always rewarded

2006-04-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Me and Alyssa after a full day of riding

French Alps and the First Week of School

2006-04-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday April 8,

A lot has changed in the last two weeks for me. My backpacking ended, I spent a week snowboarding in the Alps, and I’ve been living in Winterthur for a week already. It’s been weird and crazy but so much fun.

The French strikes were kind of a downer while I was in La Plagne. Jeff and Marc were supposed to fly in and stay at the condo with Alyssa and I for a few days but their flight had to be cancelled. Both chances we had to meet up in Europe went down the drain and now they’re back in Winnipeg. See you guys in August. The strikes also caused Alyssa’s flight back to England to be cancelled so she was stuck in La Plagne for an extra two days. We made the best of it though. The snow was good and we took advantage of it.

The weather was really inconsistent the whole week. One day it was pouring rain all day but the next was nothing but blue sky and powder. We couldn’t even guess what kind of day it would be when we first hit the hill in the mornings but the conditions made it easy for us to get some of the best runs we’ve ever had. Imagine riding up a chair lift with the sun shining and seeing the whole mountain covered in fresh powder and only a few tracks marking it up. The ride down that mountain was beyond description.

When the snowboarding trip was over and Alyssa had flown home I had to start worrying about Winterthur. They assigned me a buddy to pick me up from the train station but I hadn’t gotten an email from her in a couple weeks. I knew that my apartment was ready for me but I didn’t have a key and I didn’t know where it was. I got off the train at 11:30 last Saturday night expecting to have to walk around to find a cheap hotel for the night. I was probably as nervous as I had ever been but I felt a whole lot better when I saw a beautiful Swiss girl waiting for me on the platform. Stefanie was filling in for her friend, my actual buddy Andrea who was working. She took me straight to my apartment and helped me get settled in. She explained all kinds of important stuff, it seemed liked she had been preparing for my arrival for a week. She even paid my 750 dollar room deposit with her own money so that she could get the key from the landlord. I was impressed.

After spending my first night in my first apartment Stefanie and Andrea came by and took me to school where the student network had organized an event for all the incoming students. The incomings split up into groups and did a walking tour of the city (the tour took us to all the good bars not the churches and monuments). It was good to meet the other exchange students, they’re all really cool. I’m actually the only one that’s not from Europe. They all come from either Paris, Finland, Germany or the Netherlands, aside from a few that I still haven’t met. The tour ended in a pub where some of us stayed all night. Apparently it’s normal for the students here to stay in the same pub for six or seven hours.

Monday morning I got my schedule sorted out and went to my first class. After class we went to an Irish pub across the street and again we stayed all night. They have a big screen where they’re showing the finals of the Swiss hockey league. It’s no NHL but it’s still pretty cool. They like hockey here and they love reminding me that Switzerland beat Canada in the Olympics this year.

I took a break from going out Tuesday and Wednesday but Thursday I went to a student bar with the other exchange students. We didn’t have to worry about turning down all the free shots that were being passed around because there’s no school on Fridays here. I spent yesterday taking care of some things at school and around the city with Anji, a guy from Paris. Around 4:00 a bunch of us took a train to a suburb in Zurich where one of the exchange students is living. It was a bit of a pre-game for a huge party in Zurich that the student network was putting on for the exchange students across Switzerland. They rented a two story club with a live band. There were at least a few hundred of us in there. It was a sloppy good time.

Tonight I’m getting to bed early because a few of us are going snowboarding in the morning.

2006-03-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

a michelangelo sculpture in the louvre

2006-03-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

i can't remember where i took this one. maybe in france somewhere?

2006-03-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

a fountain at shonbrunn palace, vienna

Vienna and Paris

2006-03-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

Since I wrote a week ago I’ve done a LOT of sight-seeing.

I spent my only full day in Bratislava walking around the old center of the city. The buildings were surprisingly richly decorated, just like in Prague. I also climbed up to the castle that sits at the top of the city beside the river. The sight-seeing there was good but I was happy that I only spent a couple nights in Bratislava. I didn’t know a word of their language and there was barely any English at all. Until I met my first roommate on my second night I probably hadn’t had a conversation longer than a couple of sentences. Alco, my roommate, was a student from China, now studying in Holland. He was a business student at the same level that I’m at so we had a bit in common. He taught me a lot about what it’s really like in China and what he thought was on the way for his home country. The whole conversation was pretty dark, covering the bad living conditions to some government slaughters and their cover-ups.

In the morning I caught a bus from Bratislava to Vienna, it only took 1 ½ hours. I talked to a Slovakian girl on the bus. She turned out to be a model, which wasn’t too surprising because models are everywhere in Bratislava. The surprising part was that she was dating a guy from Regina. How could someone from Saskatchewan find a cousin all the way on the other side of the world? I wonder if there are any Siemens in Europe.

Getting to my hostel in Vienna was no problem. I think that I’ve finally gotten the hang of public transit. Once I dropped my stuff off I took my camera and went walking to the middle of the city. Vienna is famous for their cafes so I took a coffee break. They had some English newspapers so I just sat and read for a couple hours. I ended the day in the hostel’s pub. Everyone gets a free pint with their room so the bar was full and it was a good opportunity to talk with the other backpackers.

I started my second day in Vienna with this awesome breakfast. I think the stuff was called Kaiserschmarn, I had no idea what it was when I ordered but it turned out to be really good, something like diced pancakes with fried raisins and a bowl of cranberry sauce. After breaky I walked to the Schonbrunn palace at the edge of the city. This palace is where the royal family lived while they were ruling the Austrian empire. It was huge, it had gold everywhere, it had massive gardens, it even had its own zoo in the back. After the tour of the palace I took the metro to the other end of the city where Sigmund Freud ran his clinic for most of his career. He had to move to England when the war started because he was Jewish and Vienna was a hotbed for Nazis. His old home and clinic have now been turned into a museum dedicated to his life and work. The museum was ok but it was kind of dull. As interesting as his work is, his life was fairly uneventful. When I eventually got back to the hostel I walked into the pub and a few people started yelling SIR TOBY’S!!! at me. That was the name of the hostel I stayed at in Prague a few days before. Four of the people I had met at Sir Toby’s happened to be staying in Vienna at the same hostel that I was and I guess they were a little too drunk to remember my name. I had a couple drinks with them and then got ready for my flight in the morning to Paris.

The flight was really quick. I was looking forward to getting set up at my hostel nice and quick because I was meeting Marc and Jeff that evening in Paris. I had given them the phone number to my hostel so that we could make some plans. The problems started coming when I got to the hostel and they said they never got my reservation. I showed them my confirmation sheet and they got kind of confused… sure I had a booking but they didn’t have any beds because the whole hostel was under renovations for the next two weeks. They put me on the phone with another hostel in Paris, but that one was full, they could only find me a bed for the following three nights. This new hostel said that if I came by right away they could find me someone to split a hotel room with. When I got there they introduced me to Haydn from Miami, another guy who was left without a bed for the night. The two of us went across the street to a hotel and got set up in our room. It had two beds thank God. By then it was already past 10:00 and I hadn’t spoken to Marc and Jeff yet. I could have called them on Jeff’s cell but I was keeping the number on the internet and I had no internet access. I guess I’ll have to wait to see them in La Plagne, France later this week.

Once Haydn and I were settled down he pulled out his guitar and played for a while. He’s a jazz/blues guitar student in one of America’s best music schools so he’s unbelievably good. His music was the best thing to help me forget about the mess I had just been through. We went back to the hostel’s bar for a couple beers and we met a couple more travelers that got sent to the same hotel that we did, Justin and Louise.

In the morning Justin, Haydn and I went to see some of the sights in Paris before Justin had to catch a train to Germany. We saw a couple of impressive churches, Sacre Couer Basilica and Notre Dame. When you see these old European churches you think about how much work went into building them and it’s really amazing but after you’ve seen a few of them it starts to seem like the same old thing. I don’t think I’m going to bother seeing any more churches this trip.

On Friday me and Haydn went to the Louvre. It was the first real art museum that I had been to. The place is huge. We spent six hours in the museum looking at the paintings and sculptures. It was really good but I think that if I go to anymore art museums I’ll pick ones that are more modern. It seemed like every second painting at the Louvre was of the crucifixion. It was a little heavier than what I was looking for.

Yesterday was my last day in Paris and it was my first on my own in the city. I sort of wish I had done some planning because there was a lot of sights and museums that I didn’t see. In the morning I went to a big flea market that opens every Saturday. There was lots of cool, old, crap. Nothing that I would be able to use though. After the Louvre I decided I didn’t need to see any more art for a while. Then I realized that I was in Paris, where some of the best art in the world is kept, so I changed my mind and tried to make it to the Musee D’Orsay. That didn’t happen, it was already closed when I got there. Luckily it was in the same neighbourhood as the Eiffel Tower which I hadn’t seen up close yet. I took an elevator up to the top of the tower just after dark. The ride up wasn’t cheap but it was definitely worth every penny.

Today I caught an early train to La Plagne, France. It’s a ski resort in the Alps where my dad was able to get me a condo for a week. Alyssa, Jeff and Marc are coming to stay there for a bit so it should be a good with or without good snow.

2006-03-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

Birds eye of Bratislava and the Danube

2006-03-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

Gates to the Charles Bridge and Prague Castle in the Back

Some Eastern Europe

2006-03-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 19

I've now left Prague and the Czech Republic for Slovakia's capital city Bratislava. I was planning on going from Prague to Vienna and spend 4 days there. I changed that up a bit when I heard that even though Vienna is a beautiful city, there's not much to do there for youngens like me, especially on a budget. So now I'm here for two nights before I go to Vienna for just two nights.

I really didn't want to leave Prague when I did. It's an incredible city. When I first got there I met some of my dorm mates in the bar below my hostel. It was nice to get to know 8 other people as soon as I got to the city by myself. After a couple of beers we all went to bed. In the morning I was flipping through some books figuring out what I was going to do for the day. I decided to go the communism museum because communism played such a huge role in Czech history and this would probably be my best chance to learn about it. When I was getting ready to leave I met Steve, he's a retired history prefossor that lives in the hostel and gives tours of the city to his guests. He might be the loudest, weirdest, and smartest person I've ever met. Anyways he told me the communism museum is just a bunch of bs. He said the best thing to do on your first day in Prague is get to know the city by getting lost on foot so that's exactly what I did. I just walked around for like 5 or 6 hours, taking pictures of buildings and statues. It seems like every second building in Prague is covered in elaborate statues and lined with gold.

After supper that day I went to a theater show. Prague has tons of these little black light theaters that are supposed to be really good. I picked one that was playing a show called The Yellow Submarine, something based on the Beatles. I really had no idea what to expect but it was pretty good. The stage was lit with black lights so you couldn't see the guys that were dressed in all black. They would move all the props around which were painted in fluorescent colours. So basically they used these props, a bunch of Beatles music and two actors to make a story with no dialogue. After the show I went back to the hostel and hung out with a couple of girls from Boston doing a student exchange in the Netherlands.

In the morning I went on Steve's tour with the two from Boston and about six others from the hostel, all Americans. He calls his tour a history lesson about the city, not a tour like all the other tour guides in the city give. There are a lot of tours and tourists in Prague by the way. His tour was really good becuase he showed us tons of secrets about the city and kept us off the main tourist routes that have become lined with expensive souvenir shops.

That night most of the people I met from the hostel were going to the Opera together. I was thinking there's got to be something better to do than going to the opera, that's when I remembered seeing concert posters for a Lou Reed show that night. I showed up at the venue with no idea what a ticket would cost. They turned out to be pretty expensive by Czech standards but I got a pretty good discount from a guy trying to get rid of his extra ticket. The show was awesome. I figure that where older performers lack in stage energy they usually make up for it with musical talent. Lou Reed was one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen, kind of impressive when you think about all those years of living the excessive rock and roll lifestyle.

The concert pretty much marked the end of my trip in Prague. In the morning I went to the bus station for my ride to Bratislava. It might sound like a city full of Bratwurst and Saliva but from what I can tell it's a bit better than that. OK a lot better. There's a lot less english speaking guests at this hostel than at the others I've stayed at so I'll probably be on my own for my two days here. I'm not too concerned about that though, cuz it's a nice place and the city seems really cool. Last night I went to a French Film Festival. They were playing films all night back to back and you could come and go as you pleased. The first was really good. Actually the leading actors were at the theater to introduce the film. The second movie wasn't as good. It was a french, low budget, sci-fi. I couldn't make it all the way through so I just hit the hostel for some sleep.

Today hopefully I'll see more of the city. The sun's shining and it's warm enough to ditch the winter jacket.

I know my posts haven't been very consistent but I hope you all keep checking them anyways. Later.

Road trip part 2: Cologne

2006-03-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Wednesday March 15, 2006

I’m now writing on a train, on my way out of Germany. By supper time I’ll be in Prague, Czech Republic. It’s not a place I really intended to go to but it just worked out to go there. I have no idea what it’s going to be like but I think it’ll be a good time.

After leaving Bjorn’s place Monday morning Carsten and I drove down to Cologne, Germany. It’s about half way between Hamburg and Stuttgart and Carsten has always wanted to see it so it was the perfect fit for our road trip. The main tourist attraction in Cologne is definitely the Koln Dom, it’s a huge cathedral over a thousand years old. It’s so big that even still it’s the tallest building in the city besides one other tower. We found a super good deal on a hotel less than 60 seconds by foot from the Dom, so obviously the first thing we did after checking in was go and see it up close. Once we got enough pictures of the Dom we walked over to the train station where one of Carsten’s friends was working. Natalie had moved to Cologne a couple years ago from Freudenstadt so the two of them had a lot to catch up on. While we waited to go out with Natalie after her shift Carsten and I walked through the city and along the Rhine river. I started to get the feeling that even though Cologne’s a big city with over a million people, it’s still really laid back. I just got a really good vibe from the people there, even if I had no idea what they were saying.

We went back to the hotel for supper and some time to relax. The minibar in our room was stocked with beer for less than we might pay in a bar so we got the evening started early. Later we met Natalie and she took us to her favourite bar. It was a really cool place with good music and weird art on the walls. She didn’t really speak English so I kept quiet most of the night but it was still a good time.

In the morning we got some more sight seeing done before we had to leave the city to go back to Freudenstadt. We went back to the Dom, this time to climb the stairs up one of its towers. That was a lot of work considering it was still early, but of course the view was worth it. Then we went to Cologne’s Chocolate Museum. It was full of anything that had anything to do with chocolate. The best part was definitely where you got to see them making the chocolate and where you got to try it. There was this huge chocolate fountain that looked like it came from the Willy Wonka factory. Carsten and I agreed that we’ll know when one of us has really made it in life when we have one of those chocolate fountains in our house.

After the museum our time in Cologne was over. We made the drive back to his parents house for my first cheese fondue and my last night in Germany, for a while anyways.

Roadtrip to Hamburg

2006-03-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 12

Coming to Germany to stay with Carsten and Bjorn has been awesome not just because they know all the good places to go but also because I finally got to see what their lives are like at home.

After spending a few days in Stuttgart with Carsten and meeting some of his friends, we went to his parents house in Freudenstadt. We stayed there two nights, the best part about it was definitely the food. I know that every guy that’s moved away from home thinks that his mom is the best cook in the world, but when Carsten told me that his mom really was the best cook he might have been right. When we had peppercorn steak for lunch I knew for sure that we’d be eating good. The weather in Freudenstadt was crazy. There was more snow on the ground than I can remember seeing anywhere before, but by the day we left it was pouring rain and the snow was almost all gone. Today I was told that the snow is back and just as deep as before.

Thursday Carsten and I left Freudenstadt in the morning to make our way to Bjorn’s place near Hamburg. The trip was around 800 km but on the Autobahn it felt like nothing at all. It was kind of weird looking out the window on the highway and seeing castles on top of hills in the distance. That was just another reminder that I’m not at home. Another cool thing about the Autobahn is the cars. It seems like every second car is either a Mercedez, BMW, or Porsche. At one point a car passed us on the left and it was gone before we could even tell what kind of car it was. We were going like 150, so I don’t even want to know how fast he was going. I think I saw a big B on the back of it and it looked Italian like a Lamborghini or something. I’ll have to look it up on the internet later.

When we got to Bjorn’s place he introduced us to his dad and showed us their apartment. Then his dad treated us to a greek dinner at a restaurant across the street. I had something like a hamburger steak stuffed with feta cheese and it was soooo good. We spent all of Friday walking around Hamburg seeing the different parts of the city. Honestly I wasn’t expecting too much out of Hamburg but it totally caught me by surprise. After walking around downtown and grabbing lunch in a really cool café we took a water taxi around the harbour. We stopped again to get seafood for dinner before we checked out a few bars on the Reeperbahn, a famous street in Hamburgh.

On Saturday we drove to Lubeck. It’s a really old city by the Baltic Sea. Unlike some other cities in Germany it was left mostly intact after the war, so the way it looks now is not so different from the way it looked centuries ago. First we checked out the coast and Bjorn showed us the beaches where he’ll be kite boarding in the summer. Then we went to downtown Lubeck and took a tour of the Holstentor, a famous gate to protect the city, now turned into a museum. When we got back to Bjorn’s home town Bargteheide we went to his neighbourhood pub and met some people he’s grown up with. We didn’t think we would have as much fun partying in Bargteheide as we did in Hamburg, but the pub there turned out to be way more fun.

Today, my last day with Bjorn, we went to Hamburg again. We got tickets to see Hamburg’s soccer team play in the Bundesliga. I think this was the first time that I ever saw a full ninety minutes of soccer. The stadium, the fans and the whole environment were insane. There were 45,000 in attendance and they weren’t even playing one of the top teams. Hamburg won 3-0. It was a pretty good way to end my time in the North of Germany and also a pretty good way to get me prepared to watch the World Cup this summer. In the morning Carsten and I are driving to Cologne for a night before we go back to Freudenstadt and Stuttgart.

2006-03-08T13:08:00.000-08:00

early morning jam party. thanks Mrs. K.

2006-03-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Town of Wengen, skiing is on the other side of the cliff

Switzerland to Stuttgart

2006-03-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

Sunday, March 5

My second day in Wengen was amazing. It started snowing on my way up the hill just like it did the day before. I took a couple pictures of Wengen the town, but my batteries died before I could get any pictures on the slopes. You’ll have to take my word for it then, the snow was great. I was on my own for the day because Charles moved on to France the night before, but with the great snow I was able to have plenty of fun by myself.

The Alps are very different from the Rockies in some ways, especially in the way they are ridden. European resorts seem to be way bigger than Canadian resorts. Individual resorts are often clustered together on the same mountain or in the same valley so that you can ride more than one resort in the same day. This gives you access to a mind boggling amount of terrain, but strangely the Europeans don’t use much it. When the snow was falling in Wengen the skiers would totally ignore the powder fields and untouched chutes, even when they lay right under the chair lift. They all stick to the groomed runs out here, so even when it does snow the runs will be crowded and icy. In BC it’s always a race to find the fresh snow. I think a Canadian would hike for an hour to get the same run that many Europeans will pass up without even having to work for it. These of course are generalizations because I only spent 2 days on the hill, but they were two amazing days for those reasons given above.

So Thursday night I left the Alps to spend the night in Zurich. I got lost, of course, on my way to the hostel but that’s not really a story I feel like telling right now. I didn’t get to see much of Zurich and I can’t wait to go back because it is without a doubt the coolest city I’ve ever seen.

Friday morning I took a short train ride (only about 20 min.) to Winterthur, the city that I’ll be calling home from April to July. ZHW (the school I’ll be going to) is having an orientation week at the end of March for the incoming exchange students. Unfortunately I’ll be in the French Alps at that time L. Missing out on orientation week is probably going to make my adjustment a lot harder, that’s why I went to Winterthur for the day.
All the students are away on semester break but I got to meet some staff members and sort out some of the loose ends. Bernadette, the new International Assistant and my go-to person for questions or problems is really great. She showed me around the school, we had lunch together and she helped me figure out where I’ll be staying for the term. Regina, the former International Assistant, booked me for a small apartment about a 10 min. walk from school. I was actually disappointed to hear that because living alone makes it a bit harder to meet other students. But I don’t think that’ll be a problem because it turns out the apartment is in the same building, or is at least next door to the main student rez dorm building. Sounds like the best of both worlds to me.

After Winterthur I went back to Zurich for a good nights sleep and then took the train to Stuttgart Saturday morning to see Carsten. It was snowing so heavily that my train couldn’t make it all the way to Stuttgart. We had to switch trains, making us late by over an hour and a half. Even still there was a smiley German face waiting for me at the station. Carsten and his mullet-like long hair showed me his new apartment and a bit of the city before we went out for some drinks with two of his friends, Thomas and Linda. We went to a pub and they gave me a thorough introduction to German beer. I think I’m going to like Germany. Really though his friends are great, I appreciated the effort that they put into speaking English with me.

Today Carsten has shown me a lot more of the city. Actually he showed me the whole city all at once. We went up the Fernsehturm, a mini CN tower, for some awesome views of the city and the countryside. Tomorrow we’re planning a manly men’s day, we’ll try to see the Mercedes Benz museum, the Porsche museum and then back to his place for a chili cook-off. Can’t wait.

Italy to Switzerland

2006-03-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 1

Yesterday I left Milan for Switzerland. I would have liked to leave Milan Monday evening when Alyssa did but I still had to pick up my student visa in Milan and the Swiss Consulate was only open in the mornings. I got a room back at the Hotel Serena where we had stayed before. It was a great deal for the two of us, we each paid 27 Euros a night. This time though I got stuck paying 80 Euros for the night, I don’t know how that adds up. Anyways after I got my visa I went to the Central Station and hopped on a train to Zurich. From the train I got some awesome views of the alps. I got to see them below on my flight from Munich to Milan, which was also awesome, but this time I got a sense of how big they really are. I don’t think that any of you should die without riding a train through Switzerland, seriously.

When I got to Zurich I looked a little further into finding a hostel at a resort for the night. My plan was to go to Davos, mostly because of its reputation. I had a few Davos hostels written down but none of them would take internet bookings so I thought I might just show up. That was until I stumbled across some of their prices on the internet. You can’t get a bed in Davos for under CH 100 (Swiss Franks) a night, even at the shadiest hostel. I was scrambling to find a place to stay. I just about gave up on making it to a resort that night. I even had booked a bed in Zurich for the night (that would have left me just one day to snowboard, hardly worth it at all). Then a last ditch phone call landed me in Wengen, Switzerland. The hostel is only CH 35 a night and it’s great. It didn’t cost me anything extra for the 3 hour train ride to Wengen because I bought a rail pass for Switzerland. It can get you on any train for half price and it allows you to travel for free after 7pm, I’ll definitely take advantage of that.

It was really dark when I got to Wengen (in german you pronounce w as v) but it was just light enough for me to tell that there was a very shallow base of snow on the mountain. I was happy to be in the Alps but I was a little disappointed with the snow. When I woke up I met a few of the guys staying here in the dorm. That’s what’s great about hostels, you meet other travelers who are all looking to hang out and have a good time together. One of these guys, Charles from Sweden, said he’d come riding with me today. After breakfast we headed to the lift and the snow started dumping. It was perfect. Our first couple runs were sort of like dust on crust. You could get pockets of fresh snow but you really had to be careful with the ice and bumps underneath. By noon, we were getting boot deep runs, and in the afternoon it was a full on powder day. Charles showed me some of the lower traffic areas and from there I scouted a few areas I would hike tomorrow. First day on the hill was great.

I didn’t get any pictures today because the visibility was pretty low, but maybe tomorrow I’ll take the camera out. The mountains here are amazing. The sky cleared a bit for our last run, we were above the clouds and the sun was shining with the mountain peaks still way up above us. Wengen the town is at 1300m, the lifts get you up to about 2500m, and there’s a peak on this mountain that shoots up over 4100m! You can’t snowboard up there, but you can take a train. It’s the highest point that you can reach in all of Europe.

A Da Vinci statue in Milan and scenic Verona

2006-03-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

Milan and Verona

2006-03-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

Sunday, February 26

Yesterday we hung out in Milan. I caught up on my sleep until the late afternoon while Alyssa went shopping. Apparently there’s this thing called fashion that gets all the girls excited in Milan. Later we went to a club to see what the night life was like in the city and to meet some guys we had met the night before on the train. The club was not so different from something in Winnipeg except that the bar itself was way nicer and that the guys seemed to enjoy dancing more than guys would back home.

Getting back to the hotel turned out to be a challenge as it always is when you have to walk. Milan is nearly impossible to navigate by foot, even with a good map. Especially when you’re drunk. We got lost pretty quick, but thankfully a car pulled up asking for directions. These hilarious Italian guys were going to the same area as we were so they gave us a ride.

We got in around 5:00 after the club and planned to be up by 7:00 for a train to Verona. So much for catching up on my sleep.

Verona so far today has been amazing. We’ve found some of our first good luck of this Italian trip here today. We showed up during a street festival. No cars are allowed in the city for the day, and it seems like everyone is in the historic center for the festival. Our other stroke of good luck came when we got to our hotel (without getting lost for that matter). It’s a B& B and it’s way nicer and more comfortable than we could have expected from a hotel room. It’s full of modern paintings and funky furniture.

When we’re done seeing the sights in Verona we’ll take the train back to Milan so that Alyssa can fly back to Portsmouth. I’m not totally sure what I’ll do from there. I think that I’ll slowly make my way up to Germany to see Carsten by next weekend. I’ll check for cheap hostels at Swiss ski hills, maybe just go wherever the snow reports look good.

2006-03-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

Enjoying some Olympic hockey

Turin and the Olympics

2006-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 25

Yesterday we caught our train to Turin around 11:00. This was my first train ride ever, so I was definitely happy to have Alyssa show me the ropes. She said that she got fined on her first Italian train ride because she didn’t validate her ticket before she left. I would have done the same because there definitely aren’t any signs to help.

We got to Turin about 1 ½ hours later and it was raining just like it had been in Milan in the morning. With Canada having been eliminated our expectations for this day trip had already dropped, but we were still hoping to get some money back for our tickets (either one or both sets, we would decide once we figured out what we could get for them). Our expectations took another hit when we got to the venue and a shady scalper offered us 50 Euros for our tickets to the first game. We pretty much laughed in his face. We knew that he would turn around and sell for much more than that. Well it turns out that was the best offer we would get.

The conditions for selling our tickets couldn’t have been worse. In addition to the rain there were hordes of discouraged Canadians trying to dump their tickets and there were even more Italians selling theirs. Apparently a lot of the locals bought up tickets from the box office with the aim of making a quick buck. They told us nothing but lies, it seemed like they all did this as a profession.

So we went to the first game and had an awesome time. The first semi-final was Sweden against the Czechs. Sundin, Forsberg, Alfredsson, Jagr… do I need to say more. Our seats were ok but there were tons of vacant seats thanks to what the scalpers were doing. After the first period we met some Winnipegers and joined them down at ice level for the rest of the game. The camera guy filmed some of us Canadians for a bit and we were told that we’d be on the CBC, so if any of you spotted me I want to hear about it.

We opted to sell our tickets for the other semi due to the fact that we’d be stuck in Turin until 4am if we stayed. We went to a pub for some food and wine and then one of the servers gave us a lift to the center of the city and the medals piazza. The city center was beautiful and for some reason there were no travelers there. It was just us and thousands of joyful locals. After checking out downtown Turin we headed to the station and then back to Milan and our hotel.

2006-03-02T09:22:00.001-08:00

Duomo Cathedral, Milan, Italy

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Me inside the Galleria V. Emanuelle, Milan, Italy

The Arrival

2006-03-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

Thursday, February 25

Well I’m here in Milan. It took a while but I made it. When I arrived at the Milan Central Station after taking a bus from the airport (the airport is about an hour away from the city center) I had my first real European adventure. I got lost. Totally, helplessly lost. I had the hotel room booked in advance. Since it was located in between mine and Alyssa’s arrival points we decided to meet at the hotel. I had printed off a couple of maps of Milan before I left home. My plan was to get to the central station and then figure out the best way of getting to the hotel, and I was already prepared to walk because the website said it was only about 20 min. from the station. So when I got to the station I realized that there would be no well marked English signs like there had been at the Munich and Milan airports. I saw no sign of the subway system and would have not known how to use it anyways, so I went over and talked to a taxi driver. He didn’t know the hotel but he said that the street I was looking for was not far and that I wouldn’t need a cab to get there. So I went off by foot, either carrying or pulling everything I own in my overstuffed bags. Even though I didn’t know exactly where the hotel was I knew I could get to within a few blocks of it with my map. After about ten minutes of walking I asked a local to point out where we were on my map. That’s when I realized it was going to take a lot longer than 20 min. to get there. After about an hour and a half I got to the area where my hotel should have been (it was marked on one of my maps), but it wasn’t there. My map was totally wrong and I was nowhere near the hotel. Eventually some locals helped me figure out the metro and I got to the hotel about 3 ½ hours after arriving at the central station. So much for the 20 minute walk. It wasn’t a good welcoming to my first European city, but it was great to see Alyssa and I can tell that I’m going to have a great time. After getting cleaned up we went out for pasta and then to the center of the city at Duomo Square. The architecture and the size of the cathedral totally blew me away. We walked for a bit with gelatti and then went back to get some rest before our trip to Turin in the morning.