Lindsey in der Schweiz

BOB DYLAN Concert in Oberhausen

2005-10-31T07:49:00.000-08:00

This weekend I trecked it to Oberhausen, Germany to see Bob Dylan live in concert! I was amazingly excited for this trip, but I couldn’t convince anyone to come with me, so it was a solo journey. The concert was on Saturday, Oct 29, which happened to be the same day that my apartment was hosting a Halloween party, but I was more than willing to make the sacrifice and miss the party for Bob. One reason that I wasn’t able to recruit anyone to accompany me, was that Bob Dylan will be playing in Zurich in November, but I already have a plane ticket to Berlin for that weekend.

So I took the train early Saturday morning, after some crazy good times at Cheers the night before. I had to change trains a few times, including once in Cologne, where I briefly checked out the cathedral next to the train station. Cologne seems like a cool city, and I’ve heard good things about, so maybe I’ll go back there sometime. But this trip I was focused on a more important goal: getting to Oberhausen to see Bob Dylan. I was so excited for this concert because for me, Bob Dylan is one of those guys that I would say, if I could see anyone in concert, it would be him. And I only recently realized that he still performs. For some reason I was under the impression that he was completely burnt out and somewhat retired, but obviously that is not the case.

So I made it to Oberhausen, grabbed some dinner, and checked into my hostel. There were 3 other oldish German guys in my room who were also going to the concert. The concert was held very close to my hostel in the König-Pilsner Arena, which is also close to a big shopping center. So I made my way over to the Arena, somewhat following some other young people (I wasn’t the only young one there).

I was not impressed because the security people wouldn’t let me bring my camera into the concert, so I had to check it at the door. It would have been cool to get some pictures in there, but oh well. Before the concert, I walked around and checked out the band merchandise. I ended up buying a cool shirt. I probably would have bought at least one more, but all the nice T-shirts were only in men’s sizes… it was probably for the best, since they were quite expensive.

So, I was sitting in the second story, directly in front of the stage. I seemed to be in a fairly old-people section, but they were totally into the music, so it was sweet. I gotta say, the music was just amazing. It was so wicked to see him perform live! He looked really good, and played so well… (harmonica too!). Here’s the set list from the show:

1. Maggie's Farm
2. Tell Me That It Isn't True
3. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
4. Lay, Lady, Lay
5. High Water (For Charley Patton)
6. To Ramona
7. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
8. The Times They Are A-Changin'
9. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
10. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
11. Highway 61 Revisited
12. Tangled Up In Blue
13. Mr. Tambourine Man
14. Summer Days
(encore)
15. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
16. All Along The Watchtower

I was glad that he played a fare amount of old songs, since those ones are my favourite…I don’t really know that much is his new stuff, but it was all so good. The best part was Highway 61 Revisited, followed by Tangled Up In Blue, as well as All Along the Watchtower. I was glad that he played Mr. Tambourine Man, but it was so different from the original, and I didn’t really like it as much. It was almost unrecognizable… that’s how different it was. But all in all, I’d say it was an awesome show. It was funny though, how little he interacted with the crowd. He introduced the band right at the end, and that was the only thing he said to the crowd the whole show.

Afterwards, I walked along the Promenade, which is just a little street along the river. There are a bunch of restaurants and pubs along there, which looked pretty cool. After chillaxing by the river for a while, I eventually made it back to my hostel.

The next day I had a few hours to kill before my train home, so I went out for breakfast at a little restaurant along the Promenade, and then I checked out the mall. Apparently it is the biggest mall in Germany (or maybe Europe), which I can believe, since malls don’t seem to be that common in Europe. It was somewhat Chinookesque, and it had some good stores. I bought a pair of jeans, so I was happy.

On the way back home, I had to change trains a few times again. And I noticed that all trains in countries other than Switzerland are most likely not going to be on time (yes, even in Germany). So my first train was late enough to cause me to miss my second train, which set me back about an hour. I eventually made it home though, and found a nicely Halloween decorated apartment and an interesting background on my computer (courtesy of Kevin). About 3 months later, I found another present that Kevin left on my computer that weekend... haha.. it was nice.

This was definitely a wicked trip, and well worth the long train rides. Since I was by myself, I was able to get a lot of reading done, and I finally finished the book I was reading when I left Calgary.

PARIS

2005-10-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend, a group of us went to Paris, France. The group was: Me, Jacqui, Shane, Vance, Olivier, George, Evan, Bernard, Henry, Tyler, Kevin, Mike, Rebecca, Fen Ling, and Fen Ling’s friend. We took the night train there, which was around 6 hours. We arrived Saturday Oct 15 and arrived back in Baden on Tuesday Oct 18.

So I should start on the Friday before we left. Jonas (a swiss guy who works at ABB) was leaving to go back to school in Lausanne, so he decided to make a nice swiss fondue farewell supper at Antonio’s apartment. I think the group was Me, Jonas, George, Antonio, Javier, Phil, Anthony, and Devon & Jenny came for a bit later on. (Jenny is a cool swiss girl who moved into the upstairs in our building, and has recently started dating Devon).

So, we hung out at Antonio’s for a bit, and ate the best cheese fondue I’ve ever had. At the time, I had only eaten fondue once before, but I’m writing this now several months and 2 or 3 fondue meals later, and I still say that Jonas’s fondue was the best I’ve ever had.

From there, we moved down to Mojo and met up with Vance, Adrienn, Jacqui, Shane, and Evan before catching the night train to Paris. Jacqui, George, and I were in the same 6-person compartment. This was the first time I’d slept in a couchette on a night train (my only other night train experience was to Vienna, where we just slept in the seats… not so comfortable). The beds were a bit more comfortable, but it was a really short ride, and George and I were so full of cheese, that it wasn’t the greatest sleep.

We arrived early on Saturday morning, and after some metro highjinks, we eventually checked in to our hotel. We grabbed a quick breakfast nearby, and then headed for the train to Versailles, which is about 30min out of town.

Versailles consists of a huge palace, through which we got 3 audio-guided tours. One cool thing, was the hall of mirrors, but unfortunately half of it was closed for restoration. The palace was really cool, but the best part was the amazingly huge gardens. We just walked around for so long. People were renting golf carts to drive around because there was so much ground to cover.

After the first audio tour, the group had split up quite a lot. Vance and I managed to run into Jacqui, Tyler, Kevin, and Mike. So it was the six of us wandering around the gardens. We checked out the Grand Trianon and the Petite Trianon, which were houses where the King and Queen could go to relax. Then we made our way over to the Queen’s Hamlet, which was a series of little houses around a big pond. It looked like a little fairytale village. The pond was filled with tons of ugly fish, and one huge fish that we were watching and “oooing” and “awing” at for quite a while.

It was such a nice day, and the Hamlet was really cool, so we just chillaxed on the grass for a while. There were quite a few trees bearing this strange fruit, which Tyler and Mike eventually tried. Apparently it didn’t taste very good, but they survived.

We then walked back towards the palace along this big canal. We went through the 2 other audio-tours and somehow our whole group miraculously met up in front of the palace.

We were all pretty tired by then, and we took the train back into Paris. There was this French guy on the train who was all dressed in hip hop wear, and bopping out to his music. He kept yelling out and banging on the windows and did a few head spins. At one point he pulled a couple hundred euro out of his wallet and threw it on the ground, only to return it to his wallet shortly after. It was quite entertaining.

When we got back into Paris, we got off the train near the Notre Dame and bought some dinner supplies at a grocery store. We hung out along the river across from the Cathedral while we ate our bread and cheese and other good stuff.

We walked back to our hotel, which was really nice since it was an actual hotel… none of this crappy hostel business… and it was cheaper than any hostel we could find (and by we, I mean Olivier, since he did all the leg work for this trip). Equipped with our many bottles of wine, we had a nice little pre-party in our hotel room. I was staying with Vance, Jacqui, Shane, and Olivier. We had an extra person in our room, so 3 of us had to share a double bed, which wasn’t too bad.

After we consumed a sufficient amount of wine, we took the Metro over to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up and sparkly at night. The Eiffel Tower is one of those things that is just so much bigger when you see it in person. And it looks really beautiful when it’s lit up at night. We hung out there for a while, and laid on the grass, just staring up at the tower. A few smart people decided to take the last metro home, but the rest of us decided to make a poor decision and stay out later. We some how thought that it wouldn’t be that far to walk, however, it turns out that it was damn far. Somewhere along the walk home while I was talking to George, my infamous 9-10 scale came into existence.

We had a good time walking around Paris. I think it was Vance, Me, Jacqui, Shane, George, Evan, Rebecca, Olivier, and maybe some others. At one point we stopped to buy more wine (yet another poor decision on my part). We walked past the Arch de Triomph, which was quite cool at night. Another one of those things that is just so much bigger than you imagine. Around this time, Shane got the hiccups, and he and Jacqui fell behind. I didn’t notice it at the time, it just seemed like they disappeared. They wound up sleeping on the grass somewhere, and got back to the hotel much later than the rest of us.

Anyways, we continued our journey home. At one point Evan and I walked into some random fancy hotel to use the bathroom. I thought I was going to get kicked out, but if you just walk in there like you belong, then nobody says anything.

We eventually made it back to our hotel, and since Jacqui and Shane weren’t home yet, I took the double bed all to myself. I woke up the next morning to discover that they had joined me in bed at some point that night.

The next day (Sunday) we planned to visit some of the museums around Paris. After some morning highjinks, I eventually made it to the Louvre where I separately ran into Shane, Henry, and Bernard. It is amazing how much stuff there is in the Louvre… I knew there was no way that I would be able to see everything (or even close to everything), so I made sure I saw the 2 things I was interested in, and then just wandered around checking out as much cool stuff as I could see. The first thing I went to see was the Mona Lisa. It was actually quite small, but it was beautiful and cool to see the original in person. The other thing I went to see was the Venus de Milo. Another really cool sculpture that I saw was the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The placement of that piece was great… right at the top of a big staircase.

I should mention, most of this day was solo for me, which was actually quite nice. So after I left the Louvre, I made the longer-than-it-seems walk down Champs Elisse. It doesn’t seem very long because when you look down the street you can see the Arch de Triomph, and it doesn’t look very far away. It’s deceiving though, because you don’t realize how big the Arch actually is. The point is, I walked down the street and it was quite cool. There were some really wicked shops along there (eg Sephora, and a huge Luis Vuitton store). I eventually made it to the Arch, where I ran into Fen Ling and her friend. We hung out for a little while and took some pictures. We eventually found the underground route that took us across the ring-road, over to the Arch. There was something going on there, but I wasn’t exactly sure what. There were guards and official looking people (maybe some army vets) laying down flowers and what looked to be a memorial of some sort under the Arch. There was a flame into which one of the guys put his sword. It was quite interesting, and I watched for a while until it started to become dusk.

At that point, I took the Metro back to the hotel to meet up with the others (well really to meet up with Jacqui, since the others had changed the meeting time until later, without informing Jacqui). Since we had a bit of time to kill, we both took a nice nap.

When most people got back to the hotel after their day of museums and various exploits, we all went down to Moulin Rouge. It would have been really sweet to actually see a show, but it was much too expensive for our taste. Instead we just took pictures outside the building. Moulin Rouge was the red light district of Paris, so we walked through there for a few blocks and were surrounded by sex shops and erotic shows and lights of all sorts. It was pretty cool.

From there we walked to Sacre Coeur and by another Paris miracle, ran into the rest of the group (Shane, Evan, and George). Sacre Coeur is a church up on a hill, which looked cool all lit up, and gave a beautiful view of the city. We chillaxed on the steps for quite a long time. There were a few guys playing the guitar and singing, which set the mood quite nicely. And George was impressing me with his photography skills. That guy has skills even he doesn’t know about. We made a good decision that night, and left early enough to take the Metro home and get a good sleep.

The next morning, Vance and I went to the modern art museum (Centre Pompidou). There was some cool stuff in there, and some pretty crazy stuff too. There were 2 Dali paintings, which I really enjoyed.

After that, Vance and I split up and I went over to the Notre Dame. It’s quite beautiful and has a really cool design. I’m a fan of the many Gargoyles perched on the edges. After that, I just wandered around and checked out the city until about 4pm when I went to the Eiffel Tower to meet the rest of the group.

So we all paid to walk up to the 2nd platform of the Eiffel Tower. They have stairs in the legs I guess. They also have fun facts for you to read all along the way, and around each platform. It’s really cool to see the city from up there. And you can really see how big the arc de triumph looks compared to everything around it. We met on the second platform, and then almost everyone decided to take the elevator all the way to the top (you can’t walk up there). The view doesn’t really change that much from the second platform to the top, but it’s just awesome to be up there. It was for surely worth it.

When we were all standing back on solid ground, we split off again for our last evening in Paris. I went with Jacqui, Shane, Evan, George, Olivier, and Rebecca back to the Louvre to make the Champs Elisse walk at night followed by climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomph. This is where Jacqui and I had our most embarrassing moment of the trip. All weekend we tried to get into museums, etc for the price of children (under 18 at most places). We were sometimes successful… Jacqui was actually quite successful on her own. So everyone else had gone through the ticket line (Evan, Shane, and George had day passes, so they went through quite quickly). Jacqui and I then tried to pass for under 18, but little did we know that if you are under 18 you’re not allowed to go to the top of the Arc unless you have an adult with you. So we tried to explain that Evan, Shane, and George were our ‘guardians’, but the ticket people wanted us to go and get them. They had already gone up the stairs, so there was no way we could reach them. We were about to give up, but I really wanted to go up to the top, so we decided to go back and tell the ticket people that we had lied and that we were actually over 18. When we produced ID they let us go, but made fun of us for lying… we were so embarrassed. But, we did get to go up the Arc!

The view from the top was so wicked! Especially at night! There are 12 streets going off from the arc in all directions. Champs Elisse being one of them, which was all lit up and beautiful. You can also see the Eiffel Tower from up there, and Jacqui and I got up there just in time to see it sparkling (it sparkles every hour for a few minutes).

So we were hanging out at the top, checking out the view, when one of the guards started yelling “Oh la la”, and we looked over to see Shane on top of the middle of the Arc. Good thing he wasn’t our guardian, because he got asked to leave after that.

That was all the time we had left in Paris, so we stopped by the hotel to get our bags and took the night train back home before work. Paris was definitely a beautiful city and an awesome time. It has been one of my favourite trips so far. The city and the sites were incredible, and we had such a good group dynamic (and even with such a large group).

OKTOBERFEST!! – München

2005-09-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend, 16 of us went on a road trip to Munich (München) Germany to check out Oktoberfest, which is a 2 week long (3 weekends) beer festival. It takes place during the end of September and ends in October, which according to Jacqui’s blog, is because the weather is nicer in September. We were there for the second weekend of the festival. We rented 4 cars and drove up Friday night and back Sunday. The groups were: Me, Tommy, Vance, and Kiran in our car… Vance driving and Tommy as chief navigator. Jacqui, Adrienn, Shane, and Evan in another car. George, Devon, Travis, Warren in one car. Bernard, Richard, Henry, and Olivier in the last car. Keegan and Victor were also there, but they took the train and didn’t stay with us. I think they managed to run into Henry and Bernard at some point though.

So the plan was for us to pick up our cars in Zurich after work and then get to Munich before 10pm to get a campsite. We were all going to meet in Zurich and drive together, which of course did not happen. Devon’s crew was picking up their car a bit later, so they weren’t going to meet us, and just headed straight to the campground. After some highjinks at our rental place, we went to meet Jacqui’s crew while Bernard’s crew headed straight to Munich. So it was just the 2 of us cars driving together. We lost each other within about 1 minute.

After a few hours of driving, getting stuck behind an accident, and an hour long detour which took us around Munich, we finally arrived at the campsite. Surprisingly, all of the groups made it there, though none of us were there in time to get a campsite, so we slept in our cars. Adrienn, Shane, Evan, and Jacqui drove down the road and set up their tents in some random field.

Anyways, the next morning we checked into the campsite and took the bus over to Oktoberfest. It was difficult to keep everyone focused and together, especially with all the distractions of food and Oktoberfest hats, but we managed to get to the tent grounds. Oktoberfest is kind of like the Calgary Stampede (complete with rides and such) but with less bull riding and more of a focus on beer drinking and liederhosen (Warren was all in with the liederhosen). We tried to get into one of the tents, which proved to be a difficult task. After about an hour and a half, we gave up and sat at the beer gardens outside the tent and the drinking began. They only serve beer in 1Litre mugs… and you have to be seated to order beer. Those mugs are pretty big, and it kind of hurts if you get hit in the face with one. Devon, Shane, and Evan continued their attempt to get into the tent. I think Devon and Shane succeeded.

After some beer and some chicken and a game of “Never Ever”, we walked over to the ride area where some people went on the Drop of Doom and a Roller Coaster. We lost Adrienn and Shane at that point. (It was amazing how well we stayed together for having such a big group). The rest of us checked out another beer gardens and were able to get a couple of seats and thus some more beer. A guy puked on the table behind us. To remedy this, the beer lady lifted one end of the table up and poured a few mugs of water and beer on it to rinse it off. It was pretty disgusting.

Jacqui and I made another feeble attempt to get into one of the tents, but we got shot down pretty hard. At about 11 I think, those of us who were still at the beer gardens headed back to the campsite. We found George sleeping in the trunk of his car, and these French guys kept calling him Jackie Chan and were apparently reminded of some French movie called “Taxi”.

We all went to sleep and eventually Shane and Adrienn came back. Adrienn had lost her purse after the roller coaster, and Shane lost his camera somewhere along the way, so they had been looking for their stuff. The next morning they went back to the Oktoberfest grounds and Adrienn was able to get her purse back from the lost and found… with the money in it too! Unfortunately Shane’s camera never turned up. Devon’s crew headed back home, and Bernard’s crew along with Kiran did a bit of site seeing around Munich. We went in search of a grocery store with Evan and Jacqui and wound up taking the same detour we took on Friday on the way in… damn traffic circle construction. Eventually we got back to the campsite and then Vance, Tommy, and I headed back towards home.

IBIZIA – Espania!!

2005-09-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend, a group of us went to Ibiza, which is an island off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean sea. Ibiza is known to be a huge party/clubbing place and is mostly populated by British tourists. They have the biggest club in the world there (Privilege) and they get some of the most famous DJ’s to play.

So, Thursday night Devon, Travis, Tommy, Warren, Kevin, and Nate all flew to Ibiza. Jacqui and I joined them on Friday night. Devon, Tommy, and Travis went to see Paul Van Dyke at Amnesia on Thurs, which sounded pretty wicked.

So Friday after work, Jacqui and I caught the plane in Zurich. We had a stop over in Barcelona, then on to Ibiza. We checked in and met the boys (who were taking a pre-party nap) at around 11pm. We stayed in apartment type rooms, but we had one extra person, so Jacqui and I shared a bed.

After waking up the guys, we all had some drinks in our rooms, then headed down the street to the club (Es Paradis). It was a pretty cool club.. and a good time. The drinks were crazy expensive (same with all the clubs)!! A vodka-redbull was 11 euro. And a little bottle of water was 8 euro!

The clubs hire people to dance on these platforms all night. At one point, Devon climbed up onto the platform and wound up getting kicked out. On the way back from the club, Jacqui and I some how ended up swimming in the sea. Good times. Though after that, our apartment was filled with sand for the rest of the weekend. I hate sand… it’s coarse and it gets everywhere.

The next day, we woke up and took the bus over to a beach. The weather wasn’t very good, so it was pretty cold. It was a really nice beach though, and it was cool to just relax by the sea.

That night we went out for dinner and had some sea food paella, which was sooo good!! After a nap and some pre-drinking, we all went out to Eden for a “shower party”. But there were probably 10 other people in the club.. and no shower party. We stayed there for a bit, waiting for it to get busier, which didn’t happen, so we headed over to this other street that had a bunch of different clubs. It was raining pretty hard, and kind of cold out, so walking from club to club wasn’t overly enjoyable.

Jacqui, Tommy, Nate, and Travis went into a hip-hop type club (Soul City or something like that)… the rest of us were lagging behind, and when we tried to get into the same club they wanted us to pay… so shot that down and checked out some other clubs… all of which were completely dead. There was one place that had zero people on the dance floor… it was ridiculous!

I wound up getting separated from Kevin, Devon, and Warren, and so I went back to Soul City and asked them if I could go in and look for my friends… so they let me in without paying… haha… suckers.

We just went back to the hostel afterwards, and eventually the others showed up. Devon and Kevin had both ended up in some fountain (which they later noticed had high-voltage signs all around it!!) The bad thing was that they both had their cameras with them… but they worked the next day, so it was all good… Devon’s camera has been able to survive a lot of shenanigans.

Okay so Sunday we were going to go to another beach, but it the weather wasn’t very good. We went over by the Café de Mer for a bit, but it started raining, so we left. We went back there later though when it cleared up a bit and we watched the sunset. It was quite beautiful. There were a lot of people out there watching it… and when the sun went down, everyone started clapping and cheering, like it was amazing and not something that happens every day, although I’m sure the sun was able to set the next day.. and maybe even the day after too… haha… it was kind of funny.

That night we went out to Privilege, which is the biggest club in the world. It was really cool. Some of the guys went out to Amnesia for a foam party, which their cameras were able to survive.

We flew back home on Monday to find Vance, Richard, and Kiran (friend from Canada who came to visit for 2 weeks) drinking gin at our place. Tommy was on a slightly later flight home than the rest of us and his bag got searched at the airport where the asshole airport guys stole 100euro, his discman, and his camera from his bag.

It would have been nice if the weather was better, but other than Tommy’s stuff getting stolen, Ibiza was a good trip.

De La Soul

2005-09-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

This sunday I went to my first Hip-Hop concert. Jacqui, Phil, George, Devon, Travis, Dan (english praktikant), and I went to see De La Soul in Baden here. It was a really good time! Jacqui and I even wound up on stage at one point! so that was cool.

After the concert a DJ kept playing music, so we stayed around for a bit. I don't usually pay much attention to DJ's, and I don't really notice if they're good or bad. But this guy was ridiculous! I actually noticed how bad he was... he kept destroying the songs... it was not impressive.

Also, there were these 2 girls up on the balcony area who reminded me of an 80's aerobics video with their dancing... haha.. it was great.

I'm leaving for Ibiza this weekend!... so super excited about that!!

Bellinzona

2005-09-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

This saturday, I went to Bellinzona with Jacqui, Richard, Olivier, and Feungling. Bellinzona is in the canton of Ticino, which is the Italian part of switzerland and was having a wine festival this weekend. It's about a 3-3.5 hour train ride from Baden.

We went out to a BBQ at KSB on friday night, where the Zeigelhau boys introduced us to "Turbo-cups". This is a team-oriented drinking game, which I only mildly participated in. You have two teams with an equal number of players. And it's a race in which you have to drink your cup of beer, then put the cup on the table and flip it over until it lands upside down without falling over. It was good times.

So anyways.. back to talking about Bellinzona. We took the train on saturday morning. When we got there, we ate some lunch and walked up a hill to check out one of the castles (Castlegrande). They have 3 castles there. One on this hill and 2 on a neighbouring hill. This is probably the coolest castle i've been to. It's actually castle-like (the other castles i've seen are just walls with very little castle resemblence). This actually looked like a battle time castle. It was cool. And you could walk all through it. And we went up one of the towers, which gave a nice view. You could see the other two castles from there too. There was also this big wall that you could walk along, which was quite nice. On the way back, we walked through the wall in a tunnel-type thing.

Jacqui, Richard, and I then decided to take a nap on the grass before heading over to the other castle. The other one was quite cool too, and we walked around there for a bit. One of the castles had a drawbridge!... i think it was this one. We didn't go up to the 3rd one because apparently it wasn't worth the extra effort.

When we came back into the main street, the wine festival had started. There were booths set up along the street with different types of wine from around the area. You could buy a glass for 6CHF and then have all the wine you wanted!.. it was pretty sweet. Some of the wines were really quite good. I think most of the grapes that grow around there must be Merlot grapes (though i'm not exactly sure how wine works... is it the grape that makes it Merlot vs something else like Pinot, etc). Anyways, a lot of the booths had Merlot.. and white Merlot too... which was quite good.

After some wine tasting, Jacqui went home and the rest of us went out for pizza and more wine tasting. I also tried some of the grapes that they had there!... they were so good!... not like normal grapes. They were black ones (kind of dark bluish) and they tasted like grape juice. They had a weird rubbery texture on the inside.. they were awesome! So we took some grapes and one last glass of wine to go, and caught the train back home. I think we all slepted the whole way home.

Lausanne, Sion, St. Gingolph, Montreux

2005-09-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

So this weekend a few of us went over to the french part of switzerland to check out the situation. Jacqui was in Lausanne for a work conference, so we capitalized on this opportunity and met up with her for the weekend. So, the initial plan was for Tommy and I to head down to Lausanne on friday night and spend the weekend. However, there weren't any hostels available in Lausanne, so the hostel website redirected us to Sion, so we ended up getting a hostel there instead. Now, since Sion is in an excellent hiking region, we thought it would be nice to do a few hikes over the weekend (an easier one on saturday, and a long hard core one on sunday).

So, Tommy and I took the train to Sion on friday night (approx. 3 hours). It was pretty late, so we just chilled at the hostel and went to bed quite early. The next morning (noon) Richard and Bernard took the train and met us there.

We started our "hike" by walking up this hill to check out the castle. It was pretty cool and had a nice church and a nice view of the city/surrounding cities. After that, we attempted to do a short hike that was in our guide book. We eventually found the end of the hike, but I don't think we were actually on the hike until it was almost over. We were close though. We walked through a ton of vineyards and stopped for lunch under a grape/vineyard covered area. It was really nice. We also saw some fig trees and wound up by some orchards... there was definitely an abundance of assorted fruit over there.

That night we took the train to Lausanne (1 hour) and walked around. We found a really cool crepe place and ate dinner. We had to use our mad french skills to interpret the menu, though we still required some assistance from the waitress. It took us a while to realize that we were even looking at crepes on the menu. We had some regional wine and some excellent crepes! We all got dessert crepes too (Tommy's dinner consisted of only dessert crepes). Bernard and I shared some banana-pineapple flambe. It was cool cause the waitress lit it on fire! (and because of the clear AD reference!!)

After dinner we walked around the town for a bit and managed to get lost. With the help of some french ladies and our mad french interpretation skills (and double map reading skills) we eventually made it back to the train station in time to catch the last one back to Sion.

When we were going to bed, we noticed a gianormous mother of a spider on the side of the bed! It was nice that Tommy stepped up like a man and killed it. It was gross and huge.

The next day, we got up relatively early and attempted to start a hike that was supposed to take 7 hours. We definitely didn't think things through though, because we had to carry our bags with us. But, that didn't kill our plan completely. We were still going to do the hike. After some trains and waiting around, we realized that we hadn't checked the bus schedule and so we wouldn't be able to get to the beginning of the hike, do the hike with our bags, and get the train home at a reasonable hour.... so that killed the plan. Instead, we took the train to the end of the hike and hung out by the lake. This was in St Gingolph, which is on the border of france and switzerland.

We went into france for lunch (more crepes!). To get across the border, we had to cross an unguarded foot bridge. It was nice that it was so unguarded, since none of us had passports with us.

After lunch we went swimming in lake Geneva (aka Lac Leman) and took a fairy across the lake to Montreux. We walked around Montreux for a bit, which is a nice lake side town. We saw guys playing those swiss Alpine horns! which was wicked!! I think that's the first time I've seen anyone play those.

On the train ride home we had to transfer in Lausanne, where we ran into George and Olivier and some other praktikants who were in Geneva for the weekend.

It was a nice, relaxing and liver-friendly trip.

STREET PARADE - ZURICH

2005-08-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

August 13th was the Street Parade in Zurich. It’s a huge trance party in the streets of Zurich, with some stages set up and a bunch of floats, and everyone dresses up in crazy/scantily clad costumes. This happens once a year (though I don’t think it has been going on for too long), and during the parade, the population of Zurich goes from about 400,000 to 1 million. Needless to say, we had to check things out.

I should start with the weekend before the parade. Vance, Tommy, Jacqui, and I went out on the town in Baden looking for costume supplies. We found some fabric at Manor, which we hoped to turn into some wicked capes. Jacqui and I were going to tie-dye our capes, but that idea got squashed when we saw how expensive the dye was.

Anyways, during the week, Vance scouted out some hair spray dye and some body glitter, as well as some sexy sparkle pants for himself. The four of us, along with Adrienn and Jacqui’s roommies went over to Kehl for a costume making session. I was very impressed with Jacqui’s skirt making skills… armed with only a stapler, some iron-on fabric glue (which was awesome) and some hand-sewing action, it all turned out quite nicely. Tommy and I had pre-made some logos for our capes, which turned out better than I was expecting. It was a bit of a late night, but our costumes were good to go and we were ready for the party on Saturday.

Friday night Vance and I went out with the usual crew, and after making a poor decision and heading to Zeigelhau, we walked home in the pouring rain. We did manage to find some English books and magazines that were being thrown out… score!

So anyways, Saturday morning, we all met at kehl to get sparkled and painted up before heading to Zurich. I think tommy was already on his second beer by the time we got to kehl, which was good because it gave him the courage to just wear these tiny yellow underwear that he had bought (H&M special of course). Some of the other guys were dressed equally as naked, so it was all good. So, after some beer and a lot of body glitter, we were ready to head out.

We got to Zurich around 1pm and partied and danced until the parade started. We checked out this stage that had some strange foam all around it…. It was cool. When the floats started to come by, we jumped behind one of them, and within about 10 minutes, Tommy, Anthony and I had lost everyone else. I left to go to the bathroom, and came back to find that I had lost Tommy and Anthony too…so I was flying solo for a while.

After ditching some random people that I was dancing with, I found Tommy, Devon, and Shane… and I was so happy to see them. We attempted to find the others, but of course failed miserably. It was right around then when I stepped on a beer can and cut my foot… (flip flops were a bad choice). Apparently it looked worse than it was, because everyone had heard about it and people were concerned when I saw them on Monday. Shane and I found a first-aid place, where they wrapped up my foot, and then I was back on in the parade. For some reason, they wouldn’t let Shane come with me though, so he tried to break into the first-aid place and crawl commando style over to me… but they caught him and threw him back into the street. Somehow, I managed to meet up with him shortly after though. We didn’t see anyone else from our group for the rest of the night though.

So, we partied, we danced, we laughed, we cried, and later on we checked out a laser show at one of the stages and Armen Van Buuren was spinning (apparently he’s some famous DJ). Shane and I made it a bit of an early night and took the train home around 1am.

PRAGUE

2005-08-03T02:53:00.000-07:00

The day after I got back from Italy (July 30), I flew to Prague. In total, there was about 18 or 19 praktikants there. Tommy, Jay, Robin (Jay’s friend), Warren, Vance, Me, Bernard, Ed, Jacqui, Adrienn, Richard, Henry, Shane, Evan, Charles, Ula, Mike, and Travis (sorry if I missed anyone). We were celebrating Evan’s birthday, and Jay’s last trip before heading back to Canada.

When we got there, we checked into the hostel, but it was somehow overbooked, so 10 people had to go to a different hostel. Of the people I came with, Bernard and I were able to stay at this hostel. The plan was to meet up with everyone later on to party it up, so we had the afternoon to kill before that. Bernard and I walked around and managed to hit up almost all of the major sights. We went to the national museum, then walked down the main street towards the old town. There was an art exhibit in town, so there were random art pieces along the main street. Some of them were pretty interesting. At the old town, we saw the famous clock and some churches and a market. Then we walked towards the Charles Bridge and across the river. We from there we managed to find the Prague Castle and walked around there. It is a large enclosure with 4 courtyards I think, and a big church, which we didn’t go in to. There is a beautiful view of the city from up there. It was a very nice walk.

We headed back to the hostel and met up with everyone else. Adrienn and I picked up a bottle of whiskey, which I haven’t drank in so long… it was very nice. But we made a poor decision and bought warm Coke instead of cold Coke from the fridge. A few of the guys brought out the Absinth, in true Prague fashion, and we all pre-drank at our hostel before heading out. Our plan of attack for the evening was to find this particular club, which has 5 stories, each with a different type of music. Robin knew the general direction, and so she became team leader, and like sheep, the rest of us followed. During our walk to the club, it started pouring rain… we were so ridiculously wet and somewhat lost. But, Robin was a good Shepard, and eventually we found the place.

We got inside and went straight for the bar. I ordered the cheapest beer on the menu, which I think was about 23 Czech Karuns (Crowns… I don’t know how to spell it). That’s about 1CHF… so, good deal! I then proceeded to the dance floor to get my groove on. I checked out all the floors at some point in the night, all of which were quite enjoyable. I was definitely a fan of the 3rd floor, which played oldish music. It was one of the 2 floors that played music with words… and I knew the words!... so it was good stuff!

For some reason, everyone was always looking for Tommy throughout the whole night. He was around though, doing his Tommy thing. Later on in the night, everyone started dropping off and heading home. At one point, Tommy, Jay, and I were the only remaining members of our group and at around 4am we decided it was time to head home. Jay and I got to the main floor and we realized that we lost Tommy somewhere along the staircase. I went back to look for him, and he informed me he was staying later… he was so irresistible in his pink shirt (H&M special) that he was still picking up ladies on the way out… no vampires this time though…. So anyways, Jay and I were left to walk home sans Tommy.

The next day, a bunch of us took a walking tour around Prague. We visited all the same places Bernard and I had gone the day before, but this time we got the history and interesting little tidbits about the things we saw. Tours are a good choice I’d say… it’s nice to get some information about what you’re seeing, and they point out the important and interesting aspects of the sights.

That evening, we met up with the group for dinner. After some high jinks and a lot of walking, Travis led us to this restaurant he had been to the night before. It was a bit outside the tourist area, so it was super cheap and more authentic Czech. There were a lot of us, so we split up into 3 tables. For some reason our table became vultures that night… we ate sooo much! It was me, Travis, Richard, Jay, and Robin. Together we had 3 appetizers, our main meals, of which we all tried a bit of each others, and they were all awesome. I think we had Vance’s leftovers, and Henry’s leftovers. And we ordered an entire page of the dessert menu, plus one from the other page (5 desserts). And we had some beer. I think our bill was like 10 or 15CHF each. It was wicked. Henry, Richard, Bernard, and I went back there the next night.

So, the next day was Monday I believe (Aug 1st) and was Swiss national day, which didn’t really affect me that much, since I was in Czech Republic… however, I didn’t have to use a vacation day, because it was a national holiday. Everyone that we were with left that day, except for me, Bernard, Richard, and Henry. Since we had an extra night, we decided to check out an Opera. We went to Mozart’s Opera “Don Giovanni,” which was playing in the opera house that it originally showed in, so that was cool. It was performed in Italian, so we didn’t understand anything that they were saying. Having spent the previous 2 weeks in Italy, I was able to understand a few words here and there, but for most of it, it was just nice to listen to. The story was relatively easy to follow though, and it was very entertaining. At the intermission, Henry bought a program, which explained what was happening. It was helpful in clarifying the confusing parts. I really liked the opera house, and the performance… it was definitely a great experience (my first opera experience too!).

On Tuesday, the 4 of us wandered through the less touristy area in search of this fortress. That was pretty much the extent of our day. Then we spent our last Karouns on souvenirs and pastries, and headed to the airport.

ITALY

2005-07-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

IT-LY?!... What am I doin’ in It-ly?!

5 points to anyone who catches that reference. (Vance has his points, and Tommy has recently busted out the D&D point system, so I figure I should start handing out some points of my own… but I will not play D&D!, just in case there was some uncertainty with that)

So, my family came to visit a few weeks ago, and I had a nice little vacation from work. July11, my mom, Auntie Cathy, and Cousin Vicky came to Switzerland. At the same time, my Auntie Pina and Nana went to northern Italy. I hadn’t seen my family for 2 ½ months, so I was excited for them to come!

So I picked up my mom, aunt and cousin in Zurich and they stayed at the Berg for 3 nights I think. This was the first time any visitors have stayed at the Berg, but it worked out okay. Vance and I traded rooms, since his room has much more sleeping space than mine.

On Wednesday, Kehl hosted a stampede breakfast party (for dinner), so my cousin and I checked that out. It was definitely good times. Pancakes and beer makes for an excellent meal!

The next day, my mom and aunt took the train down to the south of Switzerland to visit some family. Vicky and I hit up the beirgartens and then Pickwicks with the usual crew. I think it was Jay’s last Pickwicks night, so he rightfully wound up in the fountain. Vance was also thrown in, but that seemed to be for no reason at all. Since it was Vicky’s last night in Baden, Piotr and others wanted to throw her in as well, but they checked with me first. I was prepared to take the fountain for her (since I’m such a nice cousin like that…) but at the last minute, they put me down and tossed Vicky instead… it was great… haha.

So, after work on Friday, Vicky and I took the train to Bergamo (northern Italy, close to Milan). There we met my mom, both my aunts and my nana. We were visiting my mom’s cousin Salvatore and his family. He’s great!!... They’re all great! And Bergamo is quite beautiful. We had an interesting time communicating, since they don’t really speak English. Vicky and I were the only ones who can’t speak Italian, but we learned to understand a bit. We read Salvatore’s 5 year old granddaughter’s Winnie the Pooh book in attempt to learn some vocabulary, but it didn’t really work out that well for us. I was impressed that she had Winnie the Pooh though. She gets a thumbs up for that one!

After Begamo, we took the train to Venice. When I say we, I mean me, Cathy, Pina, Vicky and my mom. We planned to spend 1 night each in Venice, Florence, and Rome, before heading south to visit more family. Travelling with my family was definitely a series of high jinks! The level of high jinks in Italy is high to begin with, and with my family, it was definitely at a maximum. If Vance was travelling with us, I don’t think we would have made it out of Switzerland before he killed them all… haha… that being said, it was awesome and so much fun!

VENICE
Venice is so beautiful and such an interesting city. This was my second time there, and it was a relatively short visit. In case you didn’t know, Venice is built on water, and has many canals between the buildings and streets. It’s quite confusing to get around, but there are a lot of helpful signs.

So, we arrived by train and took the vaparetto across the Grand Canal. (A vaparetto is a boat… it’s kind of like a bus for the water). We found our hotel and then ventured towards Piazza San Marco. (Side note: since I was travelling with my family, I didn’t have to stay in shitty hostels… we got actual hotels, which was a nice change). Anyways, Piazza San Marco is the main square in Venice. There are shops around it, which sell Murano glass and other Venetian things, as well as some restaurants and cafes. The basilica, Doge’s palace, and the campinella (bell tower) are all in the square too. We crossed the Rialto Bridge on the way to the square, which is the main touristy bridge over the Grand Canal. We bought some Murano glass jewellery, and just chillxed in the square for a bit, all the while, trying to avoid being attacked by the many pigeons. Btw, Murano is one of the islands close to Venice where they make famous glass stuff. The last time I was there, we went to Murano and I saw a glass maker blowing some glass…. It was pretty cool.

Vicky and I went up the bell tower, which gave a beautiful panoramic view of the city. I recommend going up there.

That night, after a large amount of convincing, we went out for dinner and then a nice walk back to Piazza San Marco. One of the purse guys with the white sheets on the ground talked my mom into buying a fake LV purse, which broke a few hours later… good purchase!... I love those guys though!... it’s so funny watching them pack up and act innocent whenever the Carabiniari come by. The Carabiniari are also awesome… I don’t think they actually do anything. There only purpose seems to be walking around and making it more difficult for the guys with the fake merchandise to sell their stuff. It definitely made it more difficult for us to buy sunglasses, because whenever we were looking, the Carabiniari would come by and the vendor would take off.

FLORENCE
The next day, we took the train to Florence! Florence is so beautiful!. The first day/night we walked around and saw the major sights. We went to the duomo (the major church), and the baptistery, which is right next to the church. We checked out the open market as well. If you’re looking to do some shopping, Florence is a good place, especially if you want leather. My cousin and I both bought D&G belts, and I bought a Dior purse. Those were my first fake purchases of the trip, and I was excited. I also bought a skirt from a vendor, which had the sketchiest change area (not worthy of the term change room).

After the market, we walked through this piazza, which I think was called Piazza Vecchio (though I don’t remember right now). Anyways, it was the Piazza in which Michelangelo’s “David” originally stood in front of this building. Now there is a replica standing there. I also believe that the small balcony on that building was the same one in the movie Hanibal, where Hanibal Lector hung some guy, though I only vaguely remember that movie. And from the Piazza we walked to the Ponte Vecchio (translation: old bridge).

On the way back to our hotel, we passed by a street that was filled with the guys selling purses and sunglasses. We went for a drink and then went back to the street with the intentions of buying some purses, but the Carabiniari had come by and all the guys were lined up holding there huge sheets filled with purses, just waiting for the coast to be clear so they could set up again. This took too long for our liking, so we abandoned the idea, and continued on.

The next day, my cousin and I went inside the duomo. There was quite a huge line-up to get in, but it was pretty cool. Michelangelo’s tomb is in there (if I remember correctly from the last time I was there). Vicky and I travelled much more efficiently on our own, and with less tension than when we were with the others. It was good stuff. So anyways, we met up with the others and went to the Academia Museum in the afternoon. This holds a lot of Michelangelo’s work, with the main thing being the “David”. This was the 2nd time I had been there, and I just love it!. I can’t describe how amazing this sculpture is. It’s so much bigger than I had thought (though this time, I knew how big it was going to be). And the level of detail is unbelievable. You can see the veins on his arms! Unfortunately you’re not allowed to take pictures of it, but you can just stare at it for quite a long time. In the hall leading up to the David, there are some of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures, which are so awesome. Some of them look like people struggling to break out of the rock. They’re really cool, and I definitely recommend going to this museum. The other main sculpture in there is the Rape of something… I forget exactly now, but it’s an excellent sculpture. I really love and appreciate good sculptures because I can’t fathom how anyone could create them. It would take so much skill and time and patience. I was in awe.

Oh also, we had some truly excellent cappuccinos at this place in Florence. The best in Italy, as my aunt said.

Anyways, on to Rome….

ROME
So, that afternoon we arrived in Rome. We just walked down via nationale, past the building with the unknown soldier (aka the wedding cake building). I believe the Piazza is called something Emmauel. (you can probably refer to Vance or Bernard’s blog for some accurate information). We also checked out the Trevi fountain (threw some coins in for good measure) and then the Spanish steps. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped for dinner at an outdoor café. While we were waiting for our table, the owner (or possibly some random guy who worked there) brought us up to the bar and gave us a free round of Champagne, so that was pretty cool.

The next day, we took the bus to the Vatican. We checked out St. Peter’s Basillica and St. Peter’s Square. Michelangelo’s “Pieta” is in the church… it’s so beautiful. The church itself is so huge and impressive. I didn’t go into the Vatican Museum (where the Sistine Chapel is) because I have been there before. Instead I bought a fake Prada purse of a guy on the street. After that, my aunt wanted to get a purse. But of course, when we turned around to take a look, the guys had all packed up and the Carabiniari were standing there… damn those Carabiniari!

From the Vatican, we headed over to ancient Rome. We checked out the Colloseum and walked through a bit of the forum.

That night we ventured over to this super sketchy bus station, where we met up with my cousin and took the night bus to San Giovanni.

SAN GIOVANNI
San Giovanni is a small town in the south of Italy. It is in the province of Calabria and is where my Nana grew up and where my mom, Auntie Cathy, and Uncle John were born. My nana’s sister Lucia and brother Giuseppe live there along with their families, so I have a lot of relatives in this little town. My Nono (mom’s dad) has a brother Tony who lives there too.

Again, Vicky and I were the only ones who couldn’t speak Italian and the level of English among these relatives was even less than those in Bergamo, except uncle Tony, who can speak English quite well. We learned to understand a fair bit of Italian by the time we left, though I think I’ve forgotten some of it already. My Nana was also in San Giovanni when we got there. She had flown from Bergamo.

Hanging out with my relatives was awesome!...our days consisted of a short walk from Vittoria’s to Lucia’s in the morning. Then a huge lunch, which usually lasted 2 or 3 hours, followed by a nap (or siesta). Then some gelato and another walk in the evening. Everyone walks along this main street in San Giovanni. They either walk or hang out on the street, just leaning on some wall of sorts… it’s kind of odd… but pretty cool. There’s always tons of old men walking or standing around too!... never any women, but tons of old men. Then we would head back and it was time for dinner (around 9 or 10pm). Every meal was excellent and always ended with a huge slice of watermelon, which I think Vicky got used to by the end.

One of our relatives was renting a place on the ocean, so we spent one day out there. It was only an hour drive I think to get there. You gotta love swimming in the Mediterranean… it’s so beautiful.

We were in San Giovanni for about a week, and then took the train back to Rome. This time in Rome, we just went shopping and went out for another good meal. I flew home on Friday (July 29) and my family went back to Calgary on Saturday. When I left Rome it was 41°C and when I arrived in Baden it was raining. This was about 10:30pm on Friday. That night Vance and I updated each other on the events of the past two weeks and we prepared for Prague the next day.

REGATTA IN LUZERN

2005-07-11T02:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I took a trip to Luzern, which is about 1 hour away from Baden on the train (still in the german part of switzerland). The rowing world cup was held there on the Rotsee, as it is every year. I went to watch Ben Rutledge row with the Canadian team (he's my olympian friend and has been good friends with my brother since elementary school).

This was my first trip to Luzern. It's very beautiful there. There's a nice lake right by the train station, and all the nice hotels are along the lake. They also have a lake-front Pickwicks, which was quite busy the whole weekend.

Friday after work, Bernard and I took the train into Luzern. We just walked around the lake and checked things out. There are a ridiculous amount of watch stores within a few blocks, so we did some window shopping. They seem to take the really expensive watches out of the display during the night, but we saw some damn expensive price tags... the highest was 110,000CHF!... if i had an extra 110,000CHF lying around, I would definitely not spend it on a watch!

Anyways, Bernard took the train back to Baden, and I went up to my hostel. I was staying 2 minutes away from the Rostee, so it was a nice short walk to the rowing races the next morning.
Saturday morning I just relaxed and watched some rowing. I took a nap a lunch time, then watched Ben's race in the afternoon. He was rowing in the coxless mens 4, and they won the semi-final, so they were in the finals on Sunday. After the race, I met up with Ben... he showed me his boat and introduced me to a few people. Silken Laumann was there, so that was pretty cool, though we didn't talk to her. I went out for dinner with Ben and his friend. He had team meetings and such that night, so i just explored Luzern a bit more. The main touristy thing that I saw, was this big lion carved in a rock wall. It was pretty cool. I also walked by the train station, and they had a skate park set up, so I watched people skateboard for a long time. It was great!... some of those guys were pretty good.

so sunday, I watched the finals of the rowing. There were a few Canadian boats in the finals, though they didn't have a great showing. I think the mens lightweight pair got a bronze medal. Unfortunately Ben's boat just missed 3rd by 0.02s. It was so close!... those Danish guys crept up on them at the end.

after the race, we went back to the hotel and had some drinks and partied with the rest of the team. It was pretty cool hanging out with a bunch of olympic rowers. They have to stay focused on the race and not party during the weekend, but on sunday after the races, they apparently party pretty hard. Unfortunately I had to come home, so i missed the Pickwicks outing that night.

all in all it was a good weekend. It was so great to see Ben!!... and awesome to see him row!.. that was my first live rowing experience

well my family is coming to visit today, so i'm super excited about that!!!

CANADA DAY!

2005-07-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

July 1, Canada Day.

Pre-party pancakes at Shadenmüle.

Castle party at the Baden Castle.

Canada-wear and flag capes galore.

Tommy trying to mount the Canadian flag on the castle flag pole.

Beer bong.

Limbo at Pickwicks.

A bunch of Candians + some Germans + a Swiss girl + a Polish guy + an English guy + a guy from Luxemburg, all celebrating Canada Day in Switzerland.

Good times.

GREENFIELD

2005-06-28T02:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the weekend of June 24, about 16 of us went to Interlaken for the Greenfield music festival. Let’s see if I can name them: Me, Tommy, Vance, Jay, Simon, Olivier, Jacqui, Richard, Travis, Bekka (Travis’ sister), Adrienn, Ron, Shane, Evan, Ed. I think that’s everyone… sorry if I missed anyone (though most of them don’t read this anyway).

So this was a three day festival, which involved camping out and lots of wicked music. The forecast was for rain, and they definitely weren’t lying. So, we took the train on Friday (took the day off work) and arrived in Interlaken in the afternoon sometime. We found ourselves a nice camping spot and set up our tents. Tommy, Vance, and I had just bought a tent for this occasion. We bought a 2-man tent and planned to squeeze 3 of us in there… needless to say, it was not the roomiest tent I’ve been in. In true Berg fashion, our tent was partly held together with duct tape and was covered with some ghetto tarps that only seemed to cover Vance’s side. There were some people there who were definitely better prepared than we were, with their massive tents and sitting areas and such.

The day before we left, one of the bands who was supposed to perform the first night (The Mars Volta) cancelled. A few of the guys we were with were really looking forward to them, and so were quite pissed off. I hadn’t heard any of their music until the day before, so I wasn’t as concerned.

The first band we planned to see was Queens of the Stone Age, followed by Nine Inch Nails. So we headed over to the main stage, which was outdoors. The other stage was under a huge tent. As we were waiting for Queens to start, the wind started blowing like mad and it started pouring rain. It was so bad that the stage started coming apart. After a little while everyone realized that Queens weren’t going to play and so we all made a mad dash to the tent stage. There we saw Pennywise, which I really enjoyed. We were standing in several inches of water throughout the show, and my pants and shoes managed to get completely covered with mud. Though, the guys who went up front to mosh were considerably dirtier, as they were jumping in a huge pit of mud. After Pennywise, we had word that NIN’s equipment was ruined so they weren’t performing either. But the rain had stopped at this point, and the German band Die Toten Hosen was going to perform at the main stage, so we checked them out. They are a really big band in Germany, and they’re awesome!! My German friend Phil has a ridiculous amount of music on his computer, and I definitely plan to steal some of his Die Toten Hosen files. That was the big band of the evening, so afterwards we went back to our tents, which had partially survived the storm.

The next day, a few of us walked into town and bought some groceries. Vance wanted to buy some milk, which I guess is just instinct since at the Berg is an ongoing struggle to have enough milk. But it was so damn hot that day, so I assured Vance that milk was a bad choice. We bought beer instead, which was about 60°C when we drank it.

The band highlights of the second day were Jimmy Eat World and Green Day. Green Day was absolutely awesome!!!! They put on such a good show, and were just great! I really do enjoy Billy-Joe. I think it was this day, (though I’m not exactly sure), but we also watched the Phantomas. They were interesting, I must say. The drum set completely encompassed the drummer. It had a gong and some frying pans and all sorts of drums. The singer really controlled the band, though I wouldn’t call it really singing at all. They just made a series of random noises the whole time. It was a little too experimental for my liking.

On Sunday, it was super hot and nice, so we walked into Interlaken and chilled at the lake for a while. Jacqui and I ventured back to watch Finch. I thought they were quite good. Flogging Molly was also on Sunday I think. They were great! An Irish punk band. Quite enjoyable. We also checked out Slut, and maybe some other band too. There was some debate all weekend, whether some of us were going to take the last train home that night, or the first train on Monday morning. In the end, only Ed, Olivier, and Adrienn went home on Sunday. The rest of us stayed for Millencollin and System of a Down. They were both awesome! I haven’t seen anything like System of a Down before. Jacqui and I ventured into the mosh pit for a brief moment, but after one song we realized that we were going to die if we stayed in there. Even with Vance looking out for us, we were just way too small to be in there. SOAD was awesome though. Definitely worth the lack of sleep.

After the concert, we decided it would be a good idea to pack up our tents and stuff in the dark and head over to the train station. We got a few hours sleep on the pavement at the station, and took the first train home in the morning. We arrived in Baden at 8am, showered, and went to work. That was not the most productive day at work.

Monday night also happened to be the final good-bye Apero for about 10 praktikants.

LONDON BABY!

2005-06-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

I believe it was the weekend of June 10 (or around there) Tommy, Richard and I ventured to London for the weekend. We flew with SWISS airlines, which was really nice. They had inflight chocolates and sandwiches.

So, we left Friday after work and arrived at Heathrow in London. The English customs guy was giving us guff because we didn’t fill out these little cards they had given us and Richard and I didn’t know the name of our hostel. We asked Tommy, who had the hostel info, for the name, and the guy somehow thought Tommy was a spy… (I can see it though, Tommy’s a bit of a sketchy character). Anyways, we made it through with minimal high jinks.

It was quite the subway ride over to our hostel, and we met this American couple who were there on their honeymoon. We found our hostel, checked in, and hit the town. We took the tube down to Picadilly Circus and walked around looking for some good times. The streets were jumping and just filled with people. The nightlife is so fast paced and changes so quickly that clubs hire people to stand on the streets and hand out fliers advertising what’s going on that night. We ended up finding this place called The Sports Café I think, which was sort of a pub/club with a dance floor and stuff. It was 5£ cover for the boys (free for me, which was nice), which seemed to be as cheap as we were going to find for entrance into any club. We just had some drinks and had a really good night. We took the night bus home later on. The public transportation in London is so great; better than anywhere I’ve seen. The subway is awesome, and when it stops running, the night buses take over, and they run all night. There’s always some public transport way of getting home.

Before we left, Tommy and Richard spent a productive day at work with Ed (our English praktikant friend) planning out all of the major sights to see. So, Saturday morning we got up and managed to see everything on our list. It was great! There’s so much to see in London. We checked out the Tower of London, a bunch of bridges, the London Eye, the Parliament buildings Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, Wimbledon (just the front gates, since it was closed), Covent Gardens, an art museum, and probably some other places that I can’t think of right now. We also went to Camden Market, which was awesome and we all got some England paraphernalia.

That night we went out to a little pub and then partied at our hostel. It was good times.

We flew back on Sunday after some more sightseeing and we were almost late for our flight. Surprisingly the Swiss plane was also late, so it wasn’t too bad.

Random Comments that I forgot to mention:
......The street performers in London are definitely high quality. There was one lady with a full piano out there! At Covent gardens there were these violin guys who were awesome and an opera singing lady.
......It’s damn expensive there.
......On the subway, they always have announcements telling you to “Mind the gap between the platform and the train.” And all the vendors have “Mind the Gap” merchandise and subway merchandise in general. It’s great.
.....It’s so nice visiting a country where everything is in English.
.....They have signs on the road telling you which way to look when you’re crossing. This is quite helpful in getting used to people driving on the other side of the road.
.....English accents are so awesome in every conceivable way.
.....Apparently there was a terrorist attack in London the other day (this is how late I am at updating this thing). There were 3 bombs on the subway, and 1 on a bus, which is super scary and terrible.

CINQUE TERRE

2005-05-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

well some good stuff has happened since my last entry... i finally made it back to italy!... which was so amazing... i just love it there!!... we had another 11 canadian praktikant excursion to Cinque Terre... which is the NW coast of Italy.... this time i was the sole female in the group... but i'm definitely used to being outnumbered. The group was: Me, Tommy, Vance, Tyler, Travis, Mike, Keegan, Victor, Richard, Henry, and Bernard.

I guess i should start on wednesday night before we left. First of all, I finished watching Season 1 of The Sopranos... which got me super pumped for italy!!... and then i went out to ksb for some roof chillin... (ksb is the kantonspital, which is the hospital close to Daettwil but also has dorm type rooms that some praktikants live in... particularly the non-canadian people... it also has a roof where people hang out and have bbqs and such)

So, I set out with the intention of having 1 drink with the other praktikants, then i would come home and pack for italy... however, after this one beer at cheers (a pub close to ksb), Piotr (polish praktikant) decided that it would be fun to have some shots of vodka... let's just say the 8 hour train ride the next day was not a fun one for me :(

I definitely appreciate Vance waking me up at 5am so i could pack.... but once i got to italy it was evident that my judgement was impared while i was packing... i had several pairs of pants and sweaters and a jacket and an umbrella... we were going to the coast of the medetaranean sea, where it was well above 20°C the whole time...though it wasn't all bad, because i did remember to bring my bathing suit and shorts and tank tops too... it just made for a heavy back pack

Okay, so thursday morning... 8 hour hellish train ride on three separate trains. At our first transfer (in Milan), I ran into Carley Haycroft getting onto the same train as us!... we played soccer together in cranbrook... it's crazy how many people from home i see over here

A side note about the trains... after being in italy, you definitely appreciate the swiss trains!! For example, at the train station in switzerland you might see a sign that says the train will be 3 minutes late... in italy there was a sign that said the train will be 2 hours late!... it was nice that it wasn't our train.. haha... also, the trains into Cinque Terre were ridiculously ghetto... i was not impressed

So anyways... thursday night... first night in Cinque Terre... we were staying at the southernmost town called Riomaggiore in two two-bedroom flats (Cinque Terre is 5 little towns along the coast)... a little bit of exploring went on, then we all met up and drank wine and limoncino on the rocks by the ocean. It was so amazing, and so beautiful... though i was still somewhat in recovery mode, so i skipped out on the wine that night. I think Limoncino is just a Cinque Terre version of Limoncello, from the Amalfi region, and from what I can remember, I like Limoncello better.

So friday we got up early and did the roughly 5 hour hike between all the cities (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare). A lot of pictures were taken.. it was just beautiful. Between the first 2 or 3 towns, the hike is a bit easier, and the trail was loaded with school children and tourists. The last 1/2 was a lot less busy though, which was nice. We stopped in each city along the way and sampled the gelato... it was great!

Our hike ended in Monterosso, which has a nice beach front. I was so hot by the time we got there, and i just jumped right into the sea (i forgot that it was sea water though, and so i was suprised by the horrible salty taste). We swam out to these rocks and just chilled for a while. Tyler and vance got a little cut up by the barnacles and sea urchins, and Tommy was deathly afraid to swim out there, but everyone survived.

That night we went out for an amazing dinner at this little restaurant. Definitely one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had... seafood pasta with muscles, little crabs, little shellfish, some scallops maybe, some prawns, this big crazy prawn-type thing... finished off with a nice cappucino...it was awesome! We also got the first of the Vance sleeping shocker pictures at that restaurant.

After supper, we bought some more wine and drank out on the beach again.

Saturday.... we went back to a few of the towns again and had some more gelato and some excellent pesto bread. Then went to the beach in Montorosso again... this time, Vance, Richard, Mike and I swam out to this cliff and jumped off. It was awesome!... though i was a little scared when i was standing up there. The general consensus was that the cliff was around 8-10m. On my swim out to the cliff, I got stung by a jellyfish, but it was harmless and there were tons of them around!

That night we went out for another amazing seafood pasta supper. This time the restaurant had a nice view of the ocean, and we had three different bottles of wine... it was perfect! And amazingly Tommy liked the wine! He also had this potato pizza, which turned out to be pizza with fries on top... haha... it was a little strange. After supper there was some more wine and some more beach... good times.

Sunday... we just hung out for a bit in the morning, then caught the train back home... this train ride was much less horrible :)

General comments:
..... italy was awesome!
... so much good food and wine... gelato, seafood, pesto bread... awesome!
... sooo many americans!... all the people we met were american... oh except one guy from vancouver
... i love the laid back attitude in italy... if only the trains were run by swiss people

Check out some pics from the trip: CINQUE TERRE

VIENNA, Austria

2005-05-24T02:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a long weekend (monday off)... we (11 canadian praktikants) took the night train to Vienna, Austria... it was awesome (vienna moreso than the train)! The group was: Me, Tommy, Vance, Richard, Bernard, Henry, Devon, Travis, Tyler, Nate, and Adrienn.

So we arrived on saturday morning and checked in to the hostel, then we ventured out to see the city. We stumbled upon these gardens, which were pretty amazing and turned out to be part of the gardens of this huge palace called the Schönbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the of the Habsburg rulers.

There was a greenhouse at the gardens, which had a bunch of cool flowers and plants, but I didn't go inside.

After wandering through the gardens for a while, we made our way to the Palace. It was huge and pretty wicked for a summer home. We took an audio tour of the inside, which was really cool.

After the audio tour, we wandered around behind the palace in some other gardens. There was another big building at the top of a hill where the Habsburgs used to hang out. It gave a really cool view of the palace and the city from up there.

We managed to meet up with the rest of the group after that, and we all went to check out the market. They had a lot of good food and cool stuff there. We had some kebabs and it was good times.I bought an italian soccer jersey and tommy bought a vienna jersey.

On our way back to the hostel, we saw a ton of people heading over to the soccer stadium to watch vienna play... and someone spotted tommy's jersey and sold him a ticket to the game!... tyler and i accompanied tommy to the game and were able to get tickets as well!!... it was so amazing!... the fans are just incredible... it was a really good game!...the home team won... and all the fans rushed the field at the end... there was singing and chanting and cheering of all sorts... it was just awesome!!

That night we went out to Charlie P's pub in vienna... had some drinks and some good times... followed by a ridiculously long walk home.

The next day... more walking and more cool sites to see. We went for crepes for breakfast, which were so good!! And our creepyish waiter was hitting on Adrienn and giving her shots or drinks or something.

After the crepes, we went to check out Stephansdom (St. Steven's Cathedral), which actually reminded me a lot of the Duomo in Milan that I saw 4 years ago when I was there. We were supposed to meet Henry at the church, but there was some miscommunication and he actually went to a different church, so he was flying solo that day.

We continued to wander around the city for a while, and eventually made it to this museum called the Hundertwasserhaus, which was all curvey and non-straight. It was pretty cool, though some of the art was pretty crazy.

That night we went over to the hockey arena where they had a beer gardens set up with a big screen to watch the canada-czech final game! (recall that the World Hockey Championships was in Vienna)... it was great!... (even though we lost )... there was a lot of czech fans there... and they had such good chants!... we canadians were definitely out-numbered... but we made ourselves heard nonetheless... we met some canadian guys from close to home (cranbrook, kimberley, nelson area)... though none of them live in canada now

After the game we went to a pub called 1516... good times

The next day (monday) we went to the Karlskirche, and we saw a bunch of cars in the gumball 3000 race... some pretty wicked cars. We also wandered through Museumsquartier, where they had a bunch of odd bed-looking things in front of the Modern Art Museum where people were chillaxing.

Eventually we took the night train back to baden... got in around 7am... took a nap and went to work... the esspresso was flowing that day.

Overall, Vienna was a beautiful city and an awesome time. It was a great first trip to help us get into the travelling groove.

Check out some pictures from Vienna: VIENNA

Poker Night at Kehl

2005-05-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

On Friday a few of us went over to Kehl to play poker (Kehl is where Richard, Bernard, Henry, and Jacqui live... though Jacqui hasn't moved in yet). There were some previous praktikants there as well, and it was a good time. We played Texas Holdem, which I have never played before, and I was not very good at it to say the least. Henry came out on top, and I don't think the old praktikants were expecting to get beaten.

Check out some pics from the night: Poker at Kehl

Zürich and Hockey at Pickwicks

2005-05-05T01:52:00.000-07:00

May 5 is a holiday in Switzerland (meaning we got the day off work), so a bunch of us decided to check out Zürich for the day. It was raining, so we all got pretty soaked (i bought an ubrella after that trip)... but it was a good time. We just walked around the city and along the river. Zürich is a nice city, and i would like to explore it some more.

When we were heading home, there was a beach vollyball tournament in the train station, so we checked that our for a while. It was good times.

That night we got all decked out in Canada gear and watched the Canada game in the World Ice Hockey Championships at Pickwicks. The tournament was in Austria, and I think Canada won this game!... woot!

Check out some pictures from the day: Zürich and Hockey at Pickwicks

Waldshut - Grocery shopping in Germany

2005-05-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

Since Switzerland is so expensive, a lot of the praktikants make periodic trips to Germany to stock up on essential food items (ie. pasta, meet, alcohol... stuff that's cheaper in germany).

Check out some photos from Waldshut, the small town on the Swiss-German border where everyone goes grocery shopping: WALDSHUT

Beirgartens & Meeting the other praktikants - Good times in Baden

2005-05-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

The first few weeks in Baden, we spent a lot of time out at the Biergartens by our house and over at Pickwicks just hanging out with all the praktikants and having some good times.

Check out some pictures: BIERGARTENS

First Days In Switzerland

2005-05-01T01:50:00.000-07:00

well i suppose now would be a good time to revisit this journal here... i'll try to update it as much as possible while i'm in switzerland, and document my various exploits

okay first of all, the plane ride was really good... very smooth, and a relatively short stop over in frankfurt... i enjoyed the frankfurt-zurich flight... we had to take a bus across the tarmac to get to the plane... and we got to walk up the stair-car type thing... it was very nice. before i get too ahead of myself here, the calgary-frankfurt flight was also very nice.. they serve free alcohol.. the white wine was quite enjoyable

This is at the Calgary Airport. Left to right: My Dad, Me, Tommy, Kiran, Vance, Richard

so at the zurich airport, some current praktikants picked us up.. which was so great!... it was definitely awesome to have them helping us out!

we took the train to Baden and just wheeled the luggage carts over to our new apartment... it's so nice to live close to everything!

after somewhat unpacking our stuff, we went out for a kebab for dinner, then hit up the beer gardens!... there is a brewery in baden and they have their own beer gardens in their backyard i guess... it's great!... and the beer is very good... so for our first drink, with don's left-behind beer money, we got the biggest mug of beer i've ever seen!... the funflitre (5-litres)!... it was a little difficult to drink out of... definitely required two hands and a wide mouth!... they also have 1-litre mugs and 1/2-litre pints there too

we met a ton of current praktikants... a lot of canadians.. and some from germany, poland, sweden, brazil, england, and probably some other places too

from the beer gardens, we moved on to "Mr. Pickwick"... a pub close by... it's a really nice pub... a lot of praktikants seem to go there... we just played some fooseball and had some drinks... it was definitely a good first night in Baden!

i suppose that's enough for today... i'll try to upload some pictures soon